Best way to backup an entire SD card

[humayunl]

I am quickly filling up my SD card with all sorts of things.. All my apps are there.. all the data is there. Even things I previously used to store in the ~/My Documents in the main memory, I am now storing on the SD now (e.g. notes, flexwallet and listpro lists etc.)

With all the info on the SD. The only thing I need to really synchronize between the PPC and my Laptop is the PIM stuff (contacts, tasks, calendar). I take automated daily backup of these databases and it is also stored on my SD.

Since I am relying so heavily on the SD I want to make sure I take FULL regular backups of it. Is there any software that does this? or am I supposed to just manually copy the entire contents of the SD to some folder on my laptop?

[shawnc]

or am I supposed to just manually copy the entire contents of the SD to some folder on my laptop?

This is what I do. I'm sure there is a better way, but this works fine for me.

[Menneisyys]

In addition to simple manual backups, you may also want to use generic freeware synchronizing apps like MobSync ( http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=985 ) to automatize the backup. They are great at backing up cards too.

[humayunl]

Downloading now.... Thanks! :)

While downloading, these are the thoughts going on inside my brain...

Since this program synchronizes selected folders (say /Storage card) from the PPC to the Hard drive of the partner machine, it will essentially copy stuff from the PPC to the desktop (assuming there's never anything new on the desktop machine so nothing gets copied TO the PPC suring the Sync).

Synchronization this way over USB will be considerably slow.. esp in my case when I'm copying over 500+MB of data... (not there yet but i'm up to around 175MB :) So if you have a card reader (which I just bought) it would be much faster doing the SD copy function manually from the card reader wouldn't it?

[Menneisyys]

So if you have a card reader (which I just bought) it would be much faster doing the SD copy function manually from the card reader wouldn't it?

Definitely. BTW, only the first synchrnoziation will take long (while MobSynch copies all the stuff to the desktop) - additional ones will be quick (if you don't put a lot of additional stuff on your card in the meantime, that is).

MobSync should definitely be used (even in addition to the 'traditional' manual file copying) if the contents of your card changes a lot over time (because, for example, you also store your work documents on your card) and you're afraid of forgetting to synchronize. Then, it may be advantageous to have MobSync synchronize it whenever possible (whenever you put your PDA in the cradle).