pruss

I've just released a beta of my open source NVBackup 1.09. I am keeping the backup core as much unchanged as I can (though I do confess to having made one change in order to make the code a bit simpler), but I've been improving the ftp server support. Now if you have an ftp server, you can export backup sets from your card to the server, you can import a backup set from your server, and you can delete backup sets on the server. :-) See the Server menu.

AS ALWAYS, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

http://handypalmstuff.sf.net

Note that there is no security in ftp. Make sure any backups you transfer via ftp either have all confidential materials encrypted or are transfered over a secure link.

(There is enough code here to make this into a rudimentary ftp client if anybody is interested in taking on that project. It's all more or less encapsulated in ftp.c)

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Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

jgreiss

this is really great alex... any chance you could incoroporate an option to back up the ENTIRE SD card to the FTP server

(i.e. I have media stored that I've lost because of "bad sector" errors)

pruss

I do not have such a plan. It's a lot of code one would need to write to spider through a directory structure. :-)

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

cellneuron

I do think FTP option is already unnecessary. Palm OS is simple and clean, so are Palm OS applications. Backuping to FTP servers has no actual usage. There is no way to retrieve the FTP backup file without some sort of restoring. Most importantly, what's wrong with backuping to SD card? The chance of both handheld and SD card broking at the same time is very SLIM.

I also have a feature request. Can you make the reset after backup quietly? The radio turning on sound is very annoying at midnight. I am using a radiostate.prc now, which basicly disable the sytem sound before turning on the radio and enable the system sound after that, works well. Maybe you can implement the same scheme to make this app perfect.

pruss

1. If you lose the PDA with the card in it, an off-card backup is very helpful.

2. You can keep older backups on the server. What if I deleted some note a month ago, and now I realize I need it?

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

cellneuron

If you lose the PDA, you need buy another one. PIM information and orginal PRC files will be sync back from PC. Most reg information is related to machine ID, so restoring won't help at all. Maybe saved preference and unsaved preference can be restored, but it also need you buy the same PDA as you lost.



It's almost impossible to retrieve a single note from the backup file. The easiest way to get a deleted notes back is from OUTLOOK deleted folder.

Greek

I had a nasty crash, and the SD got corrupted at the same time. If I had the backup set on the PC, I could have send it back to the SD after formatting. Fortunately, I had a HotSync backup at work (newer than the one at my home PC) and could restore.

But a card backup seems to me more "complete".

I have a question, what does "Go by dates when updating" do? Advantages or disadvantages?

Thanks for any input.

Regards,

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Greek

pruss

1. On restoring PIM stuff via hotsync. More and more users never hotsync. Apparently this is quite normal for Treo users. I hotsync maybe once or twice a month. I install software via card and myInstall. Tying software to machine id is a bit of a scam. One buys software at palmgear.com and most other sites by clicking on an "Add to cart" or even "Buy" button, which makes it feel like one is buying it. If you buy it, it should be yours. It should remain yours once you upgrade to a new device. I know that some developers will regenerate your code when you get a new device, and I have no complaint about them (except for the nuisance value), but I don't think all will. Moreover, if you buy something, you have a reasonable expectation of being able to sell it. Tying software to machine ID or hotsync ID prevents resale. If you can't resell, software should be very prominently labeled "lease" or "license" at or before checkout time. I actually have only one piece of software that I care about linked to a machine ID, and it was a freebie from the developer.

2. On retrieving a single note, if it's really important to you, you can make a backup, restore a backup, copy note to SD (e.g., to clipboard, then to docs2go), restore the new backup. Or you can just grab the text on the PC right out of the MemoDB_xxxxxxxx.gz backup file (one advantage of using a standard compression method like gzip).

3. On "Go by dates": This is the fastest way to update a backup. It assumes that when a file has been changed, its date or size has been changed. Theoretically, an app could change a file and then set the date back. Or if your time has been changed (e.g., due to daylight savings? I don't know if file dates take it into account), you could by accident (very unlikely) have the same date as the earlier date of the file. Of course, likely the size would be different. But if you're paranoid, you'll uncheck this.

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

_Em

Go by dates checks the datestamps... should be faster (no file comparison), but might end up backing up stuff with no changed data, or missing files whose data changed without the datestamp changing.

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My Palm family:
Palm T|X ~ Palm T|E ~ m130 ~ m125 ~ POSE

pruss

Also, a scheduled server backup means the device calls home when stolen, at least when it can connect, and server logs may aid recovery. :-)

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

pruss

The latter is the only issue. The files without changed data will be backed up whatever the setting is, because NVBackup plays it safe and ALWAYS checks dates. But it doesn't always trust them: when it trusts them, it only crosschecks by size. WHen it doesn't trust them, it crosschecks by both size and CRC32.

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

pruss

I just posted 1.09d beta. This version includes support for backup comments (except right now in the server's list). People asked for custom filenames, so this is my way of doing it. Moreover, now the automatic backup has a new way of cycling. It only cycles through those backup sets whose comment is "auto". If it doesn't have enough of these, it will create them as needed. This means you can maintain stable backups that will never be changed simply by editing the comment (Menu | Backup sets) and making it something other than "auto". It also means that if you install 1.09d, it will start creating new backup sets in the scheduled backup even if you already have some scheduled backups, because the old ones are not marked "auto".

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

pruss

Forgot the URL: http://www.prussfamily.us/NVBackup109beta-binaries.zip

__________________
Alex Pruss

For my shareware (FontSmoother, myKbd, mySkin, Accenter, FastLaunch and AtomClock) and freeware PalmOS software, go here: http://pruss.mobi

Greek

I get a corrupted archive message, I tried WinRAR, WinZip in my PC and RescoExplorer after downloading it with SharkDownload.

Regards,

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Greek