Don't Rely On Your Zune as a Backup Tool

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5076' target='_blank'>http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5076</a><br /><br /></div>I saw a Revision3 <a target="_blank" href="http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5076">forum thread</a> where a fellow was expressing frustration over something the Zune did: <br /><br /><em>&quot;So I updated the Zune software and well after I did it didnt [sic] work. I had to uninstall [sic] and reinstall. Well, after you do that, the Zune Software sees your Zune as foreign and reformats it for ya to work with your new library. But, I forgot I had converted the first 40 Star Trek TOS episodes for the Zune already and deleted them from my PC. Now they are gone. I am doomed to repeat that 2 day process I fear. Somebody hold me.&quot;</em><br /><br />I feel for the guy - I really do. It's ridiculous that the Zune couldn't update it's firmware without losing the partnership information, and it's even more ridiculous how easy it is to lose the content on your Zune. But...(and you knew this was coming), relying on a Zune, or any portable media player for that matter, as the one and only source for your video files is a really bad move. The partnership information on the Zune doesn't appear to be particularly reliable - two weeks ago, prior to the 1.3 firmware update, I synchronized my Zune - and it claimed it was a new partnership and helpfully offered to nuke all the content on my Zune. I hadn't updated or changed anything, yet it lost the partnership information. Has anything similar happened to you?

[enjoythemusic]

Interesting, the software and firmware went fine. Sync'ed fine. Out of the blue yesterday it lost knowing my Zune was home so had to GUEST first to get back some videos. THEN made the unit my home unit and sync'ed.

Why does MS force you to delete/format and THEN sync when doing what it feels is a new partnership? How about making it 'smart' and having the software ask to keep, remove, or merge data like on Activesync for Smartphones?

Maybe the Activesync folks need to teach the Zune guys a thing or two.

[Caracarn]

Since updating to 1.3 I've lost partnership 3-4 times and have had to reformat/sync everything all over.

[David Tucker]

I feel bad for him...but yeah...not a wise move on his part.

[bleeman]

I haven't encountered this problem yet, beyond one expected time when I reformatted my desktop to remove Vista and drop back to XP. No problems with the firmware upgrade and I did that the day it was announced. Now I've probably jinxed myself :eek:

[the_rapture]

I'm wondering if he tried finding the temp files. The Zune software makes .tmp files of everything it converts and he could have copied them out of the Zune temp folder (I'm on the road and can't look up the actual location) and recovered. But that folder could have been cleaned out as well. Just a thought...

Denny

[rzanology]

I'm wondering if he tried finding the temp files. The Zune software makes .tmp files of everything it converts and he could have copied them out of the Zune temp folder (I'm on the road and can't look up the actual location) and recovered. But that folder could have been cleaned out as well. Just a thought...

Denny


not a bad thought at all....i for one can confirm these temp files are real....i just cleared 6.4 gigs worth of them last week.