Lost Data, how to restore?

[Tandaina]

My CLIE somehow managed to drain its batteries to zero over the weekend (this is happening far too often, I'm getting rather annoyed)

I've been synching it faithfully with the computer. I'm a PDA newbie so here is what I need to know. How do I synch the PDA so that it will get the old data stored on the comp instead of the other way around? I have no idea if i can restore my programs this way also but I"m hoping so.

If someone can point me to an idiots guide to restoring data/programs to a PDA I'd be eternally grateful.

(And does anyoen know a way to make the stupid thing TURN OFF if an alarm sounds and I don't answer it? I think that's whats draining the battery but i can't set an option to ring, turn off and then NOT ring again.

[Mason]

You should be able to sync your now empty Clie and have everything restored automatically.

However, if you want to be absolutely safe, go to the desktop software and look at the CUSTOM menu. You will find everything there to specifically control the actions of your sync. Both the on-line help and manuals have a discussion of custom synchronization which is worth reading before proceeding.

If you do a custom sync, set it up so that the desktop overwrites the handheld. Adjust ALL your settings before doing the first sync. Once your handheld is back the way you want it, be sure to return the settings to normal.

It also sounds like you have a faulty battery. You might want to discuss this with the shop where you bought it.

Mason

[Tandaina]

Ah thank you. I discovered the problem here at work where i have a charger but not the synch which is at home. I'll do a custom synch. Will that also restore programs? (I've been using a custom calendar and to do list for example that I want back along with all their data.) I'm assuming it would have to or it wouldn't do much good.

I'm not sure if its the battery or not. The issue seems to be that an alarm will go off and I won't notice. The stupid thing will then sit there, on forever waiting for me to click the "ok" on the alarm pop up. Only know this cause I caught it once after about an hour, it was still on despite hving the "off after" time set to two minutes. Very frustrating if you can't be there to baby sit your PDA any time a timer might go off.

[Mason]

Yes, a hot sync will restore all the applications you have installed. When you see the CUSTOM

The restoration of data to your handheld from the desktop will be simple and fast. Here are some things to do and/or think about:

Read your manual and the on-line help before starting.
The settings you see in the CUSTOM options windows show what is to be done. (Note any that you change.)
After restoration, immediately restore any settings you changed.
Do not put your Clie into the cradle until you are certain that you are ready to proceed.
Before doing anything, make copies of the *.DAT and *.BAK files under a different directory; you can always delete them when you are back to normal.
Programs will be restored.
Assuming that your applications use the standard Palm databases, your data will be restored as normal.

I am not sure what to say about the cause of your battery exhaustion. There are some other things that could be done for that, but first , let's get your data restored.

Mason

[Tandaina]

Ok I only changed one setting, the one that says which overwrites which. (changed to desktop overwrites PDA). Its synching right now. Taking forever but its got alot to do. I had a ton of programs and data on it.

Huh had me reset the handheld after the synch was done, I assume because it had to install all those programs?

*Cheers* Its all back to normal! :) And the stuff I put on it today didnt' get overwritten, it merged it. I'm impressed! Only wierdness is two of the progs didnt get put in teh right folder and got left in 'unfiled' but that was a quick fix.

The battery issue is definately annoying. Its a Sony CLIE NR70 and while I expected less than stellar battery life because of the screen its bonkers that I could turn it off on Tuesday full power and its totally out of charge by Sunday. (didn't turn it on even once in between)

[JohnKes]

That's not unusual. Check:
1) Auto-off under General Preferences. Keep it at 2 minutes.
2) Beam Receive. Set it to OFF, otherwise any stray IR will wake up the PDA.
3) Datebook and any other calendar programs for alarms, esp. during the times you will not be near your Sony.

Also, some poorly written programs won't shut off even if you switch to another program. I once tried to IR my phone numbers to a Nokia phone. It didn't stop IR'ing until the batteries died. You have to do a Warm Reset to stop those.

[Tandaina]

Yeah I think the problem is my Franklin Covey planning software. It doesn't seem to turn off it an alarm is generated by te Franklin Covey calendar but it DOES go off if the regular calendar sounds an alarm. Grrr...

[Scott777]

Isn't there a setting in your Franklin Covey software, either on your desktop or the Clie that lets you specify how long the alarm goes on for? Look in the Preferences or Options of the program and see...

[Tandaina]

Nope, you can set how often to repeat the alarm and how many times (no option to NOT repeat though). But you can't sayto sound the alarm and then turn off. It works the same as the regular Palm calendar alarms except for some reason it sometimes doesn't go off.

[Mason]

Glad to hear all is safely restored.

You mentioned that you left it powered off between a Tuesday and Sunday, but on Sunday found the battery exhausted. Were there any Franklin alarms set during that period? Is it possible to check whether this is the case? If not, there may be two problems; the Franklin alarm design AND something else triggering power consumption.

During a trip to Canada, I also experienced trouble when someone beamed data to me from a Nokia 7190 telephone.

[Tandaina]

That's what I thougth but I checked and I didn't have any alarms set for that time.

In teh past its gone a full week out of the crade with very light use without a problem. Yeah it got low but not low enough to cause a problem. That's why I don't understand this. Very frustrating.

[JohnKes]

How old is it? Li-Ion batteries slowly degrade, until they become unusable (approx. 2 years).

[Mason]

From your reply, it really does sound like the cause is something other than the Franklin software.

I do not think it is likely, but an external IR source could be a problem. An external IR source will not turn you device on, buy may keep it on if it is woken up by an alarm. Check that you are not in range of a another device with an IR search sequence, like a laptop.

As John points out, Lithium batteries slowly degrade. If this is a sudden phenomenon, there may be power circuit problems or possibly you have a defective battery. Whether you are still in warranty, or not, I would discuss this with your shop. You should be able to trust your device.

[little-man]

NR70's havent been out for that long (even though they've already been replaced, typical of Sony). The battery should still be usable, as it's definitely not more than two years old. You should check with the place you found it. If it comes to replacing the battery, try ********hightech.com. Hope it works out.

[Tandaina]

I bought it this summer, definately less than two years old. ;)

At this point I'm going to keep an eye on it and try timing how long the battery lasts. I don't think its IR issues waking it up. I don't own any other IR devices and was at my parents for Thanksgiving, they certainly don't. heh.

Another thought I had was the memory stick. The PDA kicks on if hte memory stick is ejected and reinserted, its possible it got jostled and woke it up that way. Why it would stay on i'm not sure but its possible. What I may do is just put the "hold" switch on any time I put it in my bag and don't plan to be using it frequently, the "hold" can help keep things like that from occurring. We'll see. If it does this again I'll take it back to Best Buy and have it replaced.

[little-man]

The IR issue could still be waking it up, even if you don't own any IR devices (although you probably do and don't know it). It can sometimes interpret regular light as infared and pick that up. Try turning off the beam recieve. if you don't need it, you should turn it off.

[JohnKes]

Tandaina,
Put in Battery Log to track ON time, as well as days since the last charge. You ought to get about 4-6 hours of ON time, if not more. If you only get 1-2 hours, hurry back to Best Buy.

Battery Log:
http://www.palmblvd.com/software/pc/Battery-Log-2001-10-2-palm-pc.html

I'll bet you are right about the Franklin Planner being the culprit.

[Tandaina]

Thanks for the link. :) I'll definately try it.

[Scott777]

I regularly backup/restore using the MSbackup right on the Clie. I find that works better than the Hotsync method for getting the Clie restored after a power failure. I still Hotsync ocassionally to back up my Outlook stuff, but the problem with trying to restore from a Hotsync is that #1, you have to be at your desktop to do it. I've had to do a Hard Reset when I'm away from my computer and it's so easy to restore that way. Just make sure that when you do it, by default, you want the stick to overwrite any files in ram.

Also, any changes you make to your files on your Clie (Game settings, Web browser histories, registration codes and ebook bookmarks,etc.) Don't get saved to your hard drive unless you use the time-consuming "Handheld overwrites Desktop" option under the application settings.

It's also harder to do a restore from your desktop since you have to wade through all those .pdb and .prc files in your Archive and Backup directories and figure out what you want back on your Clie.

Hope this helps...

[Tandaina]

I use the "Handheld overwrited desktop" option every time I backup. So when I restored everything was perfect. The MSBackup sounds great though, is that something I need to install or is it on the CLIE, I better go look.

[Mason]

I agree with Scott that MSBackup is the best method. If your data is valuable, here are few tips:

Buy a 16M Memory Stick and use it only for backup. (That way, no matter how much data you have on your handheld, you can always take a full backup.)
Take a new backup each day before using your Clie.
Take a new backup before doing any major additions, deletions or changes to your handheld data and applications.
Hot sync regularly. If you lose you Clie and backup Memory Stick, you can populate your replacement device with recent data from your desktop.

[Scott777]

On my 760c it came pre-installed on the Clie. Even when I do a hard reset, it's there, so it's on the actual ROM. Other models it may have been an optional install from the CD. Check your Clie for MS Backup or look on the install CD. Let me know if you can't find it. Since I keep lots of programs on my memstick, I usually just back it up to the 128mb memstick and then occasionally back up the stick to my computer hard drive. I keep an 8mb one in my wallet that has basically just my address book in case the stick gets damaged.

This form of backup worked especially great when I had to send my Clie in for repairs a month ago. It needed a new motherboard, so then none of the other backup procedures (including MS Backup) recognized the Clie as mine since the new motherboard had a different serial #. Since I didn't want to manually reinstall everything, enter all reg codes, etc. I called tech support to see if they could help with MSbackup. We tried for 30 minutes when I finally asked him why not just use MSgate and select all of the files in the backup directory to copy to ram. Of course that sounded too simple to work, but it did...