Surviving a Hard Reset17 March 2003 Few things engender the fear in a mobile writer as the prospect of having to set the device back to "factory defaults" and start from scratch. But a hard reset really isn't as bad you think. For the most part, there are two ways to reset a PDA. The soft reset is by far the more common of the two, similar to restarting your PC, clearing the program memory while leaving your data alone. I generally soft reset my device (PalmOS or Pocket PC) once a day or so whether I need it or not, just to clear up any memory leaks and keep things running smoothly. It doesn't hurt a bit. The other reset is the dreaded "hard" reset. This erases all data on the device and restores it to the same state it was in when you first took it out of the box. Hard resets are generally only needed when a piece of software has gotten things so muddled that a soft reset won't make it go away. I rarely hard reset my PalmOS devices. I deliberately hard reset my Pocket PCs every few months or so for the same reason some people reformat their hard drives and reinstall Windows once a year: sometimes Windows accumulates so much junk in the registry, the windows directory and temp folders that it's easier to clear the decks and start over than it is to try to clean up the mess. Over time, I've learned not to be afraid of hard resets. I can recover from one in less than half an hour now, and so can you. PalmOSThis is the easy one. Palm's HotSync Manager software does a great job of backing up every database on your device every time you sync. If you have to do a hard reset (check your owner's manual for details on how to do this, it varies from model to model), all you have do to recover is put the device in the cradle and push the sync button. A window will pop up on the desktop asking which device this is, and you'll click on the same HotSync name you used before. A few minutes later, all your data will be restored. The only time this gets tricky is when you need to restore from a hard reset and you're nowhere near your computer. I talked to a guy the other day that had to hard reset his Palm while he was in Vegas, 800 miles from his PC here in Denver. For these kinds of emergency situations, I recommend Blue Nomad's BackupBuddyVFS:free. It's a quick, easy and free way to save a backup image of your device to your storage card. Get into the habit of using it regularly and you'll only be in danger of losing what you did since your last backup. Pocket PCOkay, reverse order. Most Pocket PCs come with some kind of card backup program. If yours doesn't, or you just don't like the way it works, the best on the market is Sprite Software's Pocket Backup (this is included with most iPAQs as iPAQ Backup). Made by the same people as the popular PC imaging program Ghost, this application will do anything you want anyway you want. You can do complete system backups, just selected directories, whatever. You can do backups manually, or have them happen automatically at preset intervals (ie. daily at 3am while you're asleep). You can even set the program to automatically backup the system if the battery level on the device drops to a certain level, like 15%. So even if your device goes completely kaput, you have a restorable backup of what it looked like just before the end. For $20, the piece of mind this software provides is a steal. Okay, let's say you don't want to restore from a backup. If you're having system problems caused by an unruly piece of software, restoring from a backup is just going to put that software back on your system and the problem will start all over again. In this case the treatment is to hard reset the device and rebuild from scratch. But that's not as bad as it sounds. Okay, let's begin at the beginning. You're sitting at your computer with your Pocket PC at hand, but unconnected. The Pocket PC has been synced so the data on your PC is current. Hard reset your Pocket PC according to the instructions in the owner's manual. After you go through the mandatory digitizer calibration and tap-and-hold tutorial, you see the default Today screen. Tap on the date to set your time and date settings. Tap on Start, Settings, System, About and tap on the Device ID tab. Change the device ID to whatever you used before. It defaults to Pocket_PC, but it should still be listed in the ActiveSync window on your PC. While you're looking at the PC, click on File, Delete Partnership in ActiveSync. When asked if you want to delete the synchronized files folder for this partnership, click No. Dock the Pocket PC in the cradle. On the PC, you'll be asked if you want to establish a new partnership or connect as a guest. Establish a partnership. Next you'll see a list of "conduits" -- to borrow a little PalmSpeak -- that you can synchronize. Make sure all the ones you want are checked -- Files is not checked by default -- and be sure to click on the Settings button for each one that you want to change from the defaults (by default, Calendar only syncs the last two weeks and future appointments, and Tasks only syncs incomplete appointments). Your device now syncs with Outlook and the synchronized files folder left behind by your old partnership. All your data is restored. Now for applications. On the PC, click on the Tools menu in ActiveSync, then Add/Remove Programs. You'll see a list of every Pocket PC program you've ever installed to any Pocket PC from this PC. If you've got a 64MB device and install everything to RAM, just check all the apps you want to reinstall and click OK. They'll all be reinstalled in one batch. You'll probably have to re-enter registration codes for some of them, but for all intents and purposes, you're done. If you're like me and you somehow find yourself using memory-constrained devices most of the time (even my new ViewSonic V35 only gives me 36MB instead of the 32 on my XDA), you'll want to do this batch reinstall in two passes. First do what we went over above, checking the apps you want to install to RAM and installing them to the default installation directory. Things that need to be in RAM include Today screen plugins, anything that sets alarms, input panels and device drivers. When all of that is done, repeat the process for everything you want to install to the storage card. This time when you're asked if you want to install to the default installation, click no. A new window will appear allowing you to select your storage card as the target of the installation. For the most part, that's it. You may need to reactivate Microsoft Reader and/or Audible, and set up your Today screen the way you want it, but your device should be in working order by this point. It probably took about an hour if this is your first time, but it gets easier and faster as you get more comfortable with the process. Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Jeff Kirvin
Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today! |