Jim's Tips #4: Backup to MS (Essential)

[jbarr]

Memory Sticks and backups...I purchased a 128MB Memory Stick along with my NX70V, and found a use for it that I never really considered before on my other Palm PDAs: Backups!

Sony includes a program called MSBackup, and it seamlessly and easily backs up all the contents of the NX70V's RAM to a memory stick. I used to REQUIRE FlashPro on my Palm Vx, but now that everything can be backed up to the memory stick, it is really no longer needed. I can rest much easier now.

To test, I performed a backup to the Memory Stick (took under a minute), did a hard reset erasing all data, then, keeping fingers crossed) performed a restore selecting to overwrite everything.... Drum roll please!...Voila!...back exactly as it was prior to the hard reset! Very cool!

There is no "scheduler" to automate backups, but it's literally a couple button presses and you are done.

MSBackup will keep up to 5 prior backup sets (assuming you have the space) so you could conceivably "roll back" to any of the 5 saved sets. And because the NX70V only has 11MB of RAM, there is pleanty of room for all the other goodies (MP3's, videos, etc.)!

Keeping your Clie backed up, can be a lifesaver, expecialy when you are away form your PC!

Bonus tip:
Because the backups are stored as just files in a directory, you can use it to selectivly restore files. Just use ClieFiles to navigate to the backup directory and select the file(s) to copy back to RAM.

For this and other tips, do a search on this forum for "Jim's Tips" or visit my web site, jimstips.com (http://jimstips.com)

[MGPDA]

Great tip!

Thanks a lot!

[Lizard]

does this mean I could conceivably make a backup, then selectively choose what to restore?

[helmutk]

No; MSBackup does not allow you to selectively restore individual applications or files. you must do a full restore of the entire backup. You can keep multiple backups and choose which set you want to restore from.

[rldunn]

IMO, if you don't have a backup app that can do scheduled backups, then you don't have a reliable backup, since the time you need it will be the time you've forgotten to do a backup in awhile. I used JBBackup with my NR and before on other devices, but it doesn't work yet on OS5. I have BackupBuddyVFS now (the version that comes with BackupBuddy, not the free version), and I've tested it through one hard reset, and it worked great. From previous experience, BBVFS will have problems with LIII/LX shortcuts, but I currently don't have any, so all apps were backed up and restored just fine.

[Tek Phreak]

How much memory does a full backup take up? I'd like to just buy a small MS for backup purposes only.

Enjoy.
-Tek

[Eric S]

It takes aproximately as much MS space as you have RAM in use (not counting the 5MB reserved space). Even if your NX is full, you're looking at a worst case of about 12 MB, unless you have a lot of little files. Those can eat up MS space pretty fast.

[jbarr]

Originally posted by Lizard
does this mean I could conceivably make a backup, then selectively choose what to restore? Yes and no. You can't do a formal "selective restore" as such, but all the files do get backed up into a backup directory on the Memory Stick, so if you KNOW what file(s) you need to restore, you just use a tool like ClieFiles to copy them back from the memory Stick into RAM.

One note is that there is some question as to whether ALL files get backed up. I can't answer that other than to say that I have done a number of full backup/restores and have never had any problems with the resulting restore.

I guess an added tip would be if you do a restore after a hard reset, make sure that it's the ONLY thing you do after the hard reset. In other words, don't do a hard reset and run a bunch of apps. Who knows what the results could be.

All the other suggestions are great too. I would love it if MSBackup had a scheduled backup feature, but I guess that's what you (don't) get with a freely included app.

COncerning space, Eric S. is coorect. Even an empty 16MB MS would let you do one full backup. MSBackup provides for 5 "backup sets. At 11MB each, you do the math. Of course, nothing says you have to use all 5 sets. Just keep what you want. You can delete a full set with a simple button press as needed.

MSBackup has been VERY reliable for me and has saved my butt a number of times.

The most important thing about this and other Palm OS apps is that there are often many alternatives, and most companies offer trial periods for their apps, so by all means, try out varuois apps and see what works best for you!!!