What to backup/remember before hard reset

[Guest TheNerd]

I'm about to perform a hard reset on my MDA Vario, and I would like to make sure I can get it back to how it was fairly quickly. Before I commit to wiping everything and going back to factory default misery, I would like to make sure I know what sort of things I may have problems with by doing this.

1) Data is all backed up

2) Installed software is ready for reinstalling (I kept all zip/cab files and their web links)

3) Settings - not sure about this (it's probably a registry backup I need???) Is it necessary?

4) Email, WiFi configuration. I think I can set these back up again (after all I did it once before) but I would hate to get it wrong and have difficulty so can I back the settings up?

So if anyone could enlighten me with any problems you have caused yourselves by hard resets, such as you can no longer automatically log into a website on your Wizard because all the cookies are deleted (does this happen?) then please let me know...

Regards,

TheNerd

[Guest Laser_iCE]

Hard resetting is definitely not a negative thing... In fact, in most cases, it will increase the stability and speed of your device.

You're going to lose your messages, unless you have them backed up (Such as with JeYo Mobile Extender). Mind you, having too many messages (I've found in excess of 500) loading in an inbox at any given time does tend to make the device hang for a bit while you load up your messages.

Just make sure you backup your My Documents folder, as that is an absolute killer for me... Whenever I used to format my computer or flash my phone, I would always forget to do it, and it would always contain the most important things for me.

Also any themes that you might have installed, unless you're using the ones that come pre-installed.

When going back to the factory default, remember to make sure that your phone is fully charged :) Nothing worse than having your battery run out when flashing...

Laser_iCE

[Guest TheNerd]

Thanks for the advice Laser. It seems SMS messages will perish. I have done a full synchronisation with my PC, so all documents, sounds, pictures and files etc are all backed up, but I have not seen the SMS messages stored or backed up anywhere.

[Guest DonVincenzo]

SPB Backup will allow you to do a complete image of your device and have it in an exe format so you can reload the image without installing SPB Backup first. On top of that you have options to do partial backups, or do a partial restore from an image (for example, i just did a full backup of my device, hard reset, and then only restored the emails, which included my texts!) It also has a way of setting up scheduled backups, so if you have a decent sized storage card in you can just set it to backup daily, and then only hold x number of copies. To complete the package it has a Today screen plugin showing your last and next backup. The Trial allows for 5 backups, but I'd say it's well worth the money, just for ease of use over anything else.

Hope that helps!

[Guest TheNerd]

Hey cheers for that Don.

I like the idea of using "images" for backup. Especially when it can be carried around with the device. I'll give the trial a go and see how I get on.

Thought I'd post the advice T-Mobile present on their ROM download page...

[*]Before upgrading your MDA Vario, the battery must be fully charged.

[*]To save your personal data, you can either use a storage card or Active Sync to save your data from your device to your PC (please note that Active Sync will only save data from Outlook such as contacts, tasks, appointments, files etc).

[*]All email settings will be lost, therefore, they will need to be reconfigured