Palm TX - window XP - Loss all contact -- Please help!

Question

7/23/09 - sync error. all my 10 years of contact gone!
click on hot sync see record that 7/20/09 hot sync went OK.
Is there a way to go back to 7/20/09? System restore ?
What can I do to get my contact back? Pleaseeeeeeeeeee
Do I need to manually back up data myself? I should have done this once a month to avoid this problem in the first place.
This support site is huge, can somebody send me down the right path at least.
Downloaded Palm 6.2  is not helping.
Please tell me how to sync with palm over ride desk top. seen it but do not remember where and how. I have some old contacts from 2007 on handheld for some unknow reason, if I can not go back to 7/20/09 may be 2007 is OK for now. ( I can not set all those contacts to catagories either, they all goes to "unfile")
Prior to contact went crazy, I can not set/schedule my task to future date. if I do it went away to plam heaven.
Message Edited by imjustagirl on 08-07-2009 01:31 PM

Answer 1

You can recover the data from your user folder provided you have only sync'ed once with the PC when you discovered the data missing. When you sync to the PC there are files created for each PIM category in your user folder. For Example; datebook.dat or datebook (Depending on the version of Palm Desktop) and datebook.bak. Using 6.2 the file names are .mdb and mdb.bak. For 6.2, the files are located in the username folder in PalmOSdesktop in my documents.
The files are named .dat and .bak. When you sync, the current data is stored in .dat. The next time you sync the data in the .dat file is copied to the .bak file. You can rename the .dat to .old. then rename the .bak to .dat. If the data in the .bak file is intact, it will now be in palm desktop when you reopen Palm desktop. I have included a link to show you how to find the userfolder on the PC.
http://www.palm.com/cgi-bin/cso_kbURL.cgi?ID=26674
Here is another link regarding data loss;
http://www.palm.com/cgi-bin/cso_kbURL.cgi?ID=39503
The best way to backup your data is to use the export feature in Palm Desktop. Make a new folder on the PC desktop named Palm Desktop Backup data. Next, select the category you want to export. You will get a window that asks where you want to save the file, save in the folder created on the desktop. There is a button that allows you to select currently selected record or all, select all. If you don't select all, then only the record highlighted is exported. You will then need to name the file for export, I suggest the name of the category, eg: datebook (With current date). Do this for all critical data in each category. With the data exported to the folder on the PC desktop, you can save this data to a flash drive, external hard drive or a CD-RW. With this method you will have your data in a seperate place than Palm desktop and the device. If you "Lose" data again, you can import the data back into palm desktop.
Make sure that when you make changes in palm desktop or the device to export the data to the folder created for the backup.
Here is a link for other options for backing up your data;
http://www.palm.com/cgi-bin/cso_kbURL.cgi?ID=28751
To change the hotsync conduits to handheld overwrites desktop;
Click the HotSync icon in the Windows Taskbar and select Settings.
Click the link for Applications
Highlight the conduit you want to change and select change.
Set the conduit to handheld overwrites desktop.
Change each conduit to handheld overwrites desktop.
Sync the PDA to the PC.
If you do not check the "set as default" box the changes will only last for 1 sync. If you sync and have a problem with the sync, make sure you go back and change the conduits to handheld overwrites desktop.  You can set the conduits to "set as default" while you are trying to get the data on the PC. After you have the data on the PC, change the conduits to sync the files.