Hack 43. Make Upgrades Less Painful
Upgrading your PC or switching to a new Palm is fairly easy, but there are some things you need to keep in mind when you migrate your data. Before you migrate to a new PC or Palm, make sure you've got everything synced up. On your current Palm, you need to check all of your applications to make sure that all the data you want to save is set to synchronize. The built-in applications automatically sync all of their data, but some third-party applications allow you to select which data to sync. For example, ShadowPlan lets you select whether or not to sync for each list, and Balance-Log [Hack #12] lets you select how long to keep data. After you have checked the sync preferences, go ahead and do a HotSync to bring both your Palm device and your PC up to date. 7.3.1. New Palm DeviceIf you are switching to a new Palm device, then make sure it has been fully charged. Run through the basic setupdate, time, time zone, digitizer, and HotSync name. Use the same HotSync name that you used for your old device. Many applications use a registration scheme which is tied to the HotSync usernameeven changing the capitalization of the name can cause these applications to think they aren't registered. Install the desktop software that came with your Palm device. This will insure that your Palm device and your desktop are current with each other. Install the new desktop software into the same location as your old desktop software. If you are upgrading to a Treo, then you may be given an option when installing the desktop software to remove known incompatible applications. If you are planning on installing all of your existing third-party applications at once, then you should turn this option on. If you are going to install the third-party applications one at a time (or not reinstall them at all), then this option doesn't matter. If you want to install all of your existing third-party applications, go ahead and perform a HotSync to bring over your data. You may need to reinstall some of your applications manually, especially applications that had their own installers. You may also have to remove some applicationssometimes old applications that you deleted will reappear when you sync to a new Palm device. If you don't want to automatically reinstall your existing third-party applications, then you need to rename the C:\Program Files\Palm Handheld\ <HotSync ID>\Backup folder to something else, like Backup.old, before doing a HotSync with your new device. When you have all of your applications installed, do one last HotSync to bring over the data from any applications that you had to manually install. Check to make sure that your data was successfully transferred to your new Palm device. If anything didn't make it, you might find it easier to beam the missing items from your old device to the new. If your Palm device is crashing after upgrading, then the cause is likely third-party applications. To fix the problem, you need to do a hard reset (to clear memory) and install your third-party applications one at a time until you figure out which one is causing the problems. Rename the folder C:\Program Files\Palm Handheld\<HotSync ID>\Backup, which stores third-party applications. Rename it to something else and then install programs one at a time from there. When you find the application that crashes, delete it from your Palm device and from the C:\Program Files\Palm Handheld\<HotSync ID>\Backup folder. Whenever you install an application, it is automatically copied to the Backup folder. You may also want to do another hard reset on your Palm device to clear out any accumulated junk.
Another choice is to use a new username for your new Palm device. Copy over the built-in data by exporting the data from the Palm desktop software and then importing the data under your new username. Then, install just the third-party applications that you want to use on your new device. The only problem with this approach is that any applications you've purchased that are registered under your original HotSync name won't be registered anymore. 7.3.2. New PCAfter you HotSync to your old PC, you are ready to get set up on the new PC. Install the desktop software on your new PC, and then do a HotSync. If any of the third-party applications on your Palm device have conduits, then you will need to install the desktop components on your new PC. Applications that came with their own installers (as opposed to .prc and .pdb files) likely have conduits. You will need to copy the installers to the new PC and run them. You need to HotSync again to run the conduits. If the applications have desktop versions, then you can check the desktop versions to make sure the data was transferred.
You may want to copy a couple of folders from your old PC to your new one. Your old PC will have a folder similar to C:\Program Files\Palm Handheld.(Palm might be replaced with Sony or the manufacturer of your PDA.) Under that folder will be another folder named from your HotSync name. There are two useful folders under there, Backup and Archive. These folders contain data and applications that have been installed on your PDA. You can copy these folders to your new PC so that you can easily install older applications if you need to. 7.3.3. New PDA Step by StepHere are the detailed instructions for upgrading to a new Palm device, so follow along:
7.3.4. New PC Step by StepHere are the detailed instructions for upgrading to a new PC. If you are doing both at the same time, start by upgrading the Palm device first, then your PC.
These steps should help remove problems caused by upgrading. Generally, upgrading is fairly painless, but once in a while you run into a problematic third-party program that should be removed or upgraded. |