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Palm Tips: Backup, backup, backup!
Thu, 19 Jan 2006

Historically, Palm OS has been bullet-proof -- lasting for weeks or months on alkaline batteries, rarely (if ever) crashing, and a past hotsync always ready to rescue you. These days Palm OS is still as fast and fun to use as ever but some of the devices are a little less reliable than they were so many years ago - the introduction of newer and fancier technology has taken its toll in stability. But who would turn their back on sharp high res colour displays, NVRAM to survive battery outages, bluetooth and 802.11 wifi, fat SD cards -- the veritable kitchen sink? But data is what its all about, and we never ever want to lose it.

One of these days I'll talk about home backup and redundancy techniques as I'm researching for myself (RAID, cheap backups, offsite storage, etc), but for now lets just talk about how to survive mobile theft, crashes or smashes.

Limiting our scope to just mobiles (PDAs, cellphones, smartphone -- backing up your 20GB mp3 player is your own problem; see later post ;) makes it easier; the sorts of things that we need to survive vary from instant data loss (battery short, OS crash needed hard reset) to unnoticed data corruption (data gone bad, not used for a few weeks and suddenly we need the older data) to device damage (need to get access to data while device has been bifurcated) or complete loss (device theft, left behind at hotel or on a taxi seat...) -- these things are more common than you might think. If your data is important -- which is why you're using a PDA or smartphone -- it is best to keep a good backup. the key to a good data system is having a trusted location to centralize what you need to know during any given instant, and knowing where to go when it fails is the boyscouts way.

The Survival Guide

On-device Backups

I tell everyone to use an on-device backup system; Its out of scope for me to list all the options off or really endorse any product over another, and I really suggest you poke around yourself since some people will want encryption while others will simply want data copying. Things to consider:

On-desktop Backups

As developers we always assumed everyone hotsynced, back in the day; with the Treos we suddenly have a whole sector of folks who never once hotsync -- they crack open the packaging, power up and go, never tied to their desktop. I do suggest, however, that people hotsync on occasion.. or if they're paranoid, disable all the hotsync conduits except Backup and fire that up. Network hotsync is an option as well and I know folks who've hotsynced across the net using GPRS data on a Treo, or using 802.11 wifi from hotspots. (Some cool things can be done that way .. pick up your podcasts from 30 miles away?!)

The advantage here is akin to off-site backups (your mobile is a site, right?) -- should you lose your device, leaving it behind on the airplane or in a taxi or even just at a pals place in a pinch, you might need to get at your data -- even just to look up some information, or perhaps buy a new device and do a full restore shoudl you have punted your beloved PDA right into a toilet.

Being a developer, I kill my data more often than other folks.. but if your data is important, you might do the same as I -- keep offsite backups away from your home, or even away from work. Simple manual methods exist, such as copying your Hotsync User Directory to USB flash keychain every month or two, or burning a CDRom, or even zipping and uploading to Google Mail (GMail). Heck, zip up your content, encrypt it with PGP and email it to a friend, or keep your burnt CD in a safe, or in your desk at work, or under a couch at your friends place.

This quick article was hacked together way too early in the pre-coffee morning, but I think advice is sound -- get yourself some trusted and automated backmup techniques. Its like a diet -- if its work you won't do it, but if its freebie .. you'll thank yourself when you need it.

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