Backup Buddy Pro

[The Palmster]

Lots of discussion about backup programs which backup onto the SD card. Anyone attempt a full restore or "zoomback" from the Backup Buddy program on the desktop? If so, did it work?

[tanker_bob]

I have full restored from the desktop to my T3 with BB2 and it works fine. Although I backup to the desktop every Hotsync with BB2, I generally use BBVFS Pro 3.07 for restores because it is faster and I always have it with me. The desktop is just added insurance for me, plus BB2 retains old files longer in case I need to retrieve something that's been gone more than a day. I only keep the most recent daily backup on my card.

[The Palmster]

Thanks Tanker Bob but I think I should have been more specific. I was wondering whether anyone successfully restored a "T5" using Backup Buddy from the desktop. Many reports of problems backing up and restoring the T5 from an SD card but I have yet to find any reports on whether the T5 can be successfully backed up using Backup Buddy from the desktop.

So....anyone tried yet?

[tanker_bob]

Sorry, I misunderstood. Version 2.1 officially includes support for the T5. I don't have any way of testing it, though.

[Chukar]

I'm using BB on a T5 with no problems either backing up or restoring. Frankly, I think some of the problems people are reporting are due to other software conflicts. For example, I had all sorts of backup and restore errors until I disabled TextPlus, now I have none with BB. OTOH, perhaps I'm just luckier than others. :D

[jacksonian]

I've been a long time Palm user, and I used to have BB. But I never really felt like it was adding much to my usual HotSync backup. Why do you guys like it?

[tanker_bob]

I've been a long time Palm user, and I used to have BB. But I never really felt like it was adding much to my usual HotSync backup. Why do you guys like it?
Well, normal Hotsync only backs up the app files it installs and any other databases with the backup flag set. The problem is the many databases don't set the backup flag and are never backed up. When you recover from a hard reset, you get most of your apps back and some of the databases, depending on how the flag was set. BB2 backs up everything, regardless of the state of their backup flags. It also backs up system databases that Palm does not, like Unsaved Preferences and some library patches. Although, some open patch files won't backup by any means because of the way that the system opens them, so you will still have to manually load them.

I reflashed my T3's ROM yesterday to get some stuff back that I removed with JackSprat. That requires the dreaded hard reset once reflashing is complete. BB2 gave me my system back just as I left it, minus the T3 system updates. I tried to be clever and messed with the T3's setup after than and hosed the system so badly that it wouldn't load except for a warm reset. I recovered by zooming back to the pre-reflash backup set and was back in business in a few minutes. Very nice! I couldn't have done either of those things--the full restore and the zoomback to a known good backup--with the standard Hotsync backup. BB2 Pro is worth every penny IMO.

[jacksonian]

Thanks Tanker Bob, I went ahead and got the BB Pro and installed it just now.

[sUnShInE]

I'm trying to use this zoomback function now and it's totally not working for me. :(

Sad.

[The Palmster]

I see that this post has come back to life!

I can now report that I have answered my own question. Performed a hard reset on the T5 (after loading the patch update) and chose Zoomback option on BackupBuddy and it worked great. The only exception was that I had to re-install AvantGo. Not sure why this didn't zoom back but other than that, all of my applications (and I have over 50) were reinstalled and are working great. I performed the zoomback about 3-5 weeks ago and so any hidden bugs would have surfaced by now.

Sorry to hear that SuNsHiNe is having problems.