I agree with you. This is why I also emphasized that the current incarnation of Windows Mobile & ActiveSync leaves a lot to be desired, easy upgradability-wise, and that Microsoft could consider licensing/reimplementing the incremental/advanced restoration capabilities of Sprinte Backup to remedy the situation.
Good idea, Menneisyys. But let Sprite work out all the bugs first, before they hand it over to MS, otherwise it's unlikely that will happen.
Regarding your x50v ROM update. Just use the backup utility and backup programs and settings. Apply the newer ROM, hard reset as usual, then restore. Alright, you may lose functionality in general cases, but not here in this case. Dell hasn't changed all that much - besides, you can do this and simply opt to do the full deed at a later date like I did. I reinstalled clean a few days ago - feels no different to after I restored following the update.
Interesting - historically that's been a very bad way of doing it, and in many cases the restore wouldn't even work. I do remember reading about Dell's ROM updates being "restorable" but I have to admit I never tried that method because I wasn't convinced it actually worked. I guess I'll give this a go with the latest X50v ROM update and see what happens. :-)
I still think it's ridiculous that a ROM update requires a full hard reset though - we wouldn't re-format our desktop computers when applying SP2, so why do we have to do it here?
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The problem of the need for reinstalling/setting up everything again can be easily combatted with the Advanced restoration capabilities of Sprite Backup....just restore the old backup (it's possible in most cases with a simple registry-based version number hack) and apply a simple registry patch (because the restore restores the old registry) to bring up the registry to be totally compliant with the new ROM.
With all due respect, that's not a solution, that's a work around for something that shouldn't be such a problem in the first place. Asking customers to do registry hacks to restore a backup is not a viable solution.
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When i upgraded my 3715 rom i backed up all to install in again. Upgrade done, and then, active stynk told me that the back up was made in a different machine. Urhg... i did not bothered. I returned the 3715 in favor of a 3115, wich came with a newer rom anyway... but no so new, because the 3715 last rom was letting me access my bank account, and with my new 3115 i canīt. Really. Why? who knows. Whe technology is creating more problems than itīs solving, itīs time to trash it, people! iīm getting tired of buying a new iPAQ every year just to find that the same problems we are crying about since pocket pc 2000 are still there.
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This site should go the way of msmobiles.com. Forget WM and start talking android. Androidthoughts.com
The problem of the need for reinstalling/setting up everything again can be easily combatted with the Advanced restoration capabilities of Sprite Backup....just restore the old backup (it's possible in most cases with a simple registry-based version number hack) and apply a simple registry patch (because the restore restores the old registry) to bring up the registry to be totally compliant with the new ROM.
With all due respect, that's not a solution, that's a work around for something that shouldn't be such a problem in the first place. Asking customers to do registry hacks to restore a backup is not a viable solution.
To be fair, PC's and PPC's are apples and oranges. On a PC, the OS shares a rewritable space with your data (i.e., hard drive). Its fairly easy to upgrade. A PPC is a mix of non-writable ROM and volatile RAM. The registry issues in upgrading a PPC can probably be sovled, but the memory structure and how PPC's operate is a problem though I would think. Maybe WM2005 will make upgrading ROMSs easier.
Regarding your x50v ROM update. Just use the backup utility and backup programs and settings. Apply the newer ROM, hard reset as usual, then restore. Alright, you may lose functionality in general cases, but not here in this case. Dell hasn't changed all that much - besides, you can do this and simply opt to do the full deed at a later date like I did. I reinstalled clean a few days ago - feels no different to after I restored following the update.
Interesting - historically that's been a very bad way of doing it, and in many cases the restore wouldn't even work. I do remember reading about Dell's ROM updates being "restorable" but I have to admit I never tried that method because I wasn't convinced it actually worked. I guess I'll give this a go with the latest X50v ROM update and see what happens. :-)
I still think it's ridiculous that a ROM update requires a full hard reset though - we wouldn't re-format our desktop computers when applying SP2, so why do we have to do it here?
It would work... But it's also likely to negate some of the effects of the ROM update. {Due to replacing some of the updated files with the originals}
People aren't going to like me saying this.... But i'm happy with the current situation. Better off having the option to upgrade at all...
Integrated solutions, especially from MS, often come with a plethora of negative baggage. Taking your SP2 example, it can be the case that you may as well format. SP2 crippled three of my machines... I didn't bother installing it after that. Now I use a slipstreamed XP install, so i'm happy enough... All i'm saying is that, to me, it's an acceptable situation, and to be honest i'd rather MS ~ Dell ~ Whoever concentrated their efforts on improving other aspects of mobile devices.
For the record, i'm currently using an Axim X50v. I upgraded to A02 when it came out, and recently upgraded to A03.
The real issue is the Microsoft consumer. Microsoft has setup a dicatorship like business. They say how it is and the consumer excepts it. Stop buying and they will get the hint.
It would work... But it's also likely to negate some of the effects of the ROM update. {Due to replacing some of the updated files with the originals}
file overwrite problems can easily be checked by simple size/date comparison. Very few files may be affected because \Windows is mostly ROM which is, therefore, not backed up/restored. It's mostly new/updated links in \Windows\Start Menu that are affected, if at all.
A bigger problem is the registry because - and this is why Sprite Backup also fails at sometimes restoring old stuff over ROM upgrades - there is no real difference between the system and user areas of the registry. That is, when you install a program, not only the user areas will be affected, but also system areas too. This is why it would require a lot of work to make a really generic restoration tool, and this is why Sprite sometimes fails at restoring in complex cases like this. All in these cases, custom, device- and ROM upgrade-specific restoration scripts can be written, which work 100% for the reasons outlined below.
BTW, if anyone wants to make an over-ROM-upgrade restoration, I can help him (and the entire PPC community by making the simply importable diff file available for all PPC users) with generating a registry import file based on the differences between the old and the new registries, WinCE databases and files (these are the three areas that different ROM versions may differ from the user's view and, therefore, it suffices to check the diffeences in them only.). Then, safe (!) over-ROM-upgrade restoration becomes a breeze.
No personal information will then be sent to me because I only need a registry (most important), complete file listing (may be omitted in most cases) and complete WinCE database (may also be omitted in most cases) snapshot file of a clean, freshly hard-reset device before and after the ROM upgrade. (This is how I've made the Pocket Loox 720 diff import file - see the above-mentioned FirstLoox thread -, which made hundreds of people's lives much easier.)
I totaly agree...
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