time to backup or restore

davemc · 01-31-04, 01:07 AM

is it 'normal' for a backup OR restore (thru Active Sync) to take 2 hours to do? This seems ridicously long. This not with an expansion card.

Gigi · 01-31-04, 08:21 AM

Although it can take quite a bit of time, two hours seems too long. Do you have a lot of large files you are trying to backup/restore?

01-31-04, 08:34 AM

AS Backup and Restore are both incredibly slow. Two hours is a bit over the top, but mine usually takes between one and one and a half hours.

If you get Sprite Backup Premium Edition from www.spritesoftware.com (cost about $20) you can backup to you PC in about 15 minutes. You can also do selective backups and schedule routine backups on you Axim either daily or weekly.

Highly recommended software.

Howard2k · 01-31-04, 09:58 AM

Two hours is excessive.. But I've seen 60 minutes before. FWIW backing up my X5 used to take me around 60 minutes over USB and over Wifi it was something ridiculously fast like 6 minutes.

Raynne413 · 01-31-04, 10:16 AM

Active Sync is incredibly slow with its bu/r capabilities. Two hours is a bit long, as everyone else has said, but just keep an eye on it. I know for a fact that one of mine took over an hour.

This is why I quit using the AS version. :)

Magicmonger · 01-31-04, 11:38 AM

I agree with everyone else. Two hours is far too long to backup or restore your PPC. Mine takes anywhere from 25 to 30 minutes. Of course, I only have an Axim X5 Basic. I'm beginning to take it to the limit of Pocket PC computing. Might need to get an Advance version.

snathanb · 01-31-04, 12:05 PM

Using either Sprite Pocket Backup or the built-in Dell backup util (not Activesync), it takes me about 90 seconds to 2 minutes to back the main memory to my SD card. I then pop the SD card into a card reader and back the SD card with all my programs (and the backup of Main memory) to my PC. That takes about 1 minute.

If your time is valuable to you... you may want to consider changing your backup strategy!

Restoring takes the same amount of time. About 3 minutes.

davemc · 01-31-04, 03:01 PM

snathanb
so do you not use Sprite? I noticed that if I want the version of Sprite that backs up to your PC you have to pay $10 bucks more for 'Premium'.
So you use the built in backup utility to backup to your SD card and that does all your programs & data? Then you copy it all to your pc via a card reader? AM I understanding that correctly? Because I don't seem to recall the built in backup being that 'robust'. When you copy it to your PC you do a straight copy and paste over to a folder for it? If I was to get Sprite, am I safe in assuming that I could get the cheaper version, backup to an SD card and then transfer it over to my PC via a card reader?

snathanb · 01-31-04, 03:23 PM

If you have a removable card (SD/CF) and a card reader, you really don't need the "Backup to PC" functionality of Sprite Pocket Backup.

Exactly like you said.. you can either use the cheaper version of Sprite Pocket Backup or the built in app to back up the Axims main memory to a removable card....

Then, yes, just like you said, pop the SD/CF card in a reader, do a simple copy/paste to a folder on your PC and you are completely protected.

The only reason I started using Sprite instead of the Built-in program is that I started using custom categories in my contacts, etc. I've read the built-in one doesn't handle them correctly.

When I was using the built-in app, and the method described above, I did 3 flawless restores when hard reseting for various reasons.

In fact, I just did one today, when I was doing some performance testing, and I needed a minimal configuration. While I was at it, I reformatted my SD card to FAT32. After reformatting my SD card, I just copy/pasted my folders from my PC back to the SD card, popped the SD card in the Axim, and ran a restore. Things were exactly as I left them.