Does Hard Resetting really reset your device to BRAND NEW?

[humayunl]

I just Hard Reset-ted my Imate and noticed that though everything was as if it was just out of the box, when i went to the device information, under Phone it still remembered the total outgoing minutes and total incoming call minutes.

I was under the impression that EVERYTHING goes away when you hard reset your device.

Now I am wondering what other information it remembers from its last life.

Any detailed description of what a hard reset REALLY does?

Are there any cons of performing hard resets? (apart from having to reinstall and reconfigure everything)

[Darius Wey]

Information such as incoming and outgoing calls are usually stored on your SIM card.

Hard resets are there to restore your device back to its default factory setting. So in practice, if you hard reset your device, you can expect it to be at its default "out-of-the-box" stage.

Information stored in your non-volatile memory, however, still remains there. There are no real cons associated with it. Treat it like "formatting" your computer. You can start everything nice and fresh. The only downside is the need to reinstall all of your programs.

[Carlos]

The counters are not on the SIM. All GSM phones have built-in lifetime counters which are not easily erasable. Your hard reset did make it "like new" except for those items which are part of the radio, not the PDA.

[Darius Wey]

The counters are not on the SIM. All GSM phones have built-in lifetime counters which are not easily erasable. Your hard reset did make it "like new" except for those items which are part of the radio, not the PDA.

Actually, I think you're right. I believe I was thinking of something else. :oops:

However, if you were to stick another SIM card in the phone, the phone's call data resets back to zero. Any idea? :? This doesn't just apply to PPCPE, but your other GSM phones as well.

[Carlos]

No, it doesn't. I think maybe we're talking about two different sets of counters. There is a set of lifetime counters tied to the radio. These are not easily reset (requiring specific software & hardware). There is a set of "recent call" timers which can be user-reset and I bet would be cleared by a hard reset. The recent timers might reset with a new SIM, I have no idea, but the radio timers don't.

[Darius Wey]

No, it doesn't. I think maybe we're talking about two different sets of counters. There is a set of lifetime counters tied to the radio. These are not easily reset (requiring specific software & hardware). There is a set of "recent call" timers which can be user-reset and I bet would be cleared by a hard reset. The recent timers might reset with a new SIM, I have no idea, but the radio timers don't.

Haha...yup! We are talking about two different sets of counters. I have also heard that the lifetime counters do require "divine intervention" to be cleared :P. I was actually referring to the recent call timers in my previous post. They do appear to reset with a new SIM as I have done it a number of times when changing SIM cards from phone to phone. It's good to clarify our confusion. ;)

[cyclist]

I just Hard Reset-ted my Imate and noticed that though everything was as if it was just out of the box, when i went to the device information, under Phone it still remembered the total outgoing minutes and total incoming call minutes.

I was under the impression that EVERYTHING goes away when you hard reset your device.

Now I am wondering what other information it remembers from its last life.


Anything on your SIM is preserved. So if you save your contact phone numbers on your SIM (this is an option on my XDA, don't know what your iMate does) then you can get your contacts back off the SIM.

SIMs can also store SMS received. However SMS received in the Inbox aren't saved on the SIM, so what's there will only be messages received while the SIM was in another handset.

SIMs also handle features that Pocket Inbox doesn't - call barring, fixed dialing lists etc. These wouldn't be affected by a hard reset.

My XDA, and I believe Pocket PCs in general, have a couple of options that allow the user to choose to save calendar, contacts and connection settings in a way that will survive a hard reset. In the System tab of the start menu Settings I have an option 'Permanent Save'. This has choices to permanently save contacts and/or calendar, and to restore them. There's also another tab to store and retrieve connection settings.

One time my PPC refused to get radio reception when I got off a plane at the start of a holiday. The usual trick of resetting while on charge didn't fix it, so I had to do a hard reset. Unfortunately the bug was also in the backup on my card, so I had to make do without restoring. Being able to retrieve the settings and the contacts was a lifeline, so that I could get in touch with everyone I was scheduled to see on the trip.

[Darius Wey]

Anything on your SIM is preserved. So if you save your contact phone numbers on your SIM (this is an option on my XDA, don't know what your iMate does) then you can get your contacts back off the SIM.

SIMs can also store SMS received. However SMS received in the Inbox aren't saved on the SIM, so what's there will only be messages received while the SIM was in another handset.

SIMs also handle features that Pocket Inbox doesn't - call barring, fixed dialing lists etc. These wouldn't be affected by a hard reset.

In addition to that, bear in mind that SIMs have fixed memory loads. Once the full capacity has been reached, any extra data that would originally be stored on the SIM will "spillover" to the Pocket PC's memory and be stored there.

My XDA, and I believe Pocket PCs in general, have a couple of options that allow the user to choose to save calendar, contacts and connection settings in a way that will survive a hard reset. In the System tab of the start menu Settings I have an option 'Permanent Save'. This has choices to permanently save contacts and/or calendar, and to restore them. There's also another tab to store and retrieve connection settings.

That is correct. This works by storing data in the Pocket PC's non-volatile memory. For those familiar with the iPAQs, it's similar to what HP call iPAQ File Store. It's not as simple as clicking "Save" in Outlook to save certain contacts / appointments etc. - if you want to save your PIM information, you have to back it up in some way. A good piece of software that does this is Sprite Backup. Otherwise, some PPCs out there have a backup application supplied with the OS. You simply save a backup of the information you wish to keep and this is saved as a file on the non-volatile memory. As you mentioned, your XDA provides a backup function - functionally, it works by the same mechanism.