Restoring Backup to Different PPC?

[David Prahl]

I'd like to be able to transfer everything from my X5 to an X3i. If I make a backup file on my X5, could I restore it on the X3i? The X5 is running 2002, by the way.

Thanks!

[Sven Johannsen]

Quite simply...no. PPCs are different enough that restoring to a different model isn't possible. Hardware specific registry settings would be all fouled up. You would be going one step worse even, trying to restore a PPC2002 backup onto a WM2003 device.

You can certainly do a good sync of all your PIM stuff and just sync it all to the X3. You can copy all the files out of the X5 sync'd files folder into the X3's Sync'd files folder on the desktop after it is created. If you have a My Docs folder on an SD card on the X5 you can copy that to the desktop and to an X3 SD card, or even just move the card. You will need to re-install all the third party apps though. This would be a good opportunity to see if there are upgrades to them, and specifically if there are upgrades to ensure WM2003 compatibility.

[David Prahl]

Thanks, Sven! :werenotworthy:

I guess it's time to do some "Spring Cleaning"!

[pocketpcfox]

Even just moving your PIM data backup file is no easy feat. I had a jornada 548 and the backup file format was different from the Ipaq 2210 -- even though it's the same company. Anyhow, I just beamed all info en mass from one to the other without much hassle.


Good luck....

[senfeng]

I had to do this recently. Pain in the arse. I wasn't worried about PIM info, but other programs... ouch. A couple of tips:

I'm pretty sure that most of your old programs you can install using Add/Remove programs in activesync. If you've installed it before on your PC, it should still be there. Be wary of those programs that cause you to soft reset your device. I'm pretty sure that I ended up installing the apps one at a time.

Mastersoft Money and many other programs have separate files that actually have info from your previous device. You can copy your "<name of device> My Documents" folder to a different location if you had your 'files' checkbox set in the ActiveSync options. Sync your new Pocket PC (with the 'files' checkbox checked) with the installed the app. Now you can copy files that you need from your old "<name of device> My Documents" to your new one. In my case, I installed the same apps on both devices. I didn't have any device specific apps and both devices were PPC2003, so I just copied all of the "<name of device> My Documents" files to the new folder.

[David Prahl]

Thanks for the help, everyone! Looks like "one at a time" is the way to go. :(