When people talk about computers, there is one subject which is seldom discussed, yet is probably the most important one of all - backups. The nature of the PDA makes the issue of backups all the more important - not only is it more exposed to theft and damage but it also tends to contain information of a more important nature i.e. business contacts and schedules.

There are a number of different approaches which can be taken when backing up a PDA, ranging from manual copying of data to a memory card within the unit through to fully automated backups to a PC or server. Which approach is used is influenced as much by the convenience factor as by the type and location of the data being preserved and the nature of the data loss being anticipated.

For the purpose of this review I’m going to ignore the totally manual copying methods, whether to PC or memory card;  rather I shall concentrate on automatic and semi-automatic mechanisms.  There are other packages than these available but most were discounted pretty quickly as inappropriate, poor design or too simple.

Typically these utilities can be used for both Pocket PC and Smartphone - or have Smartphone versions, but as I have an XDA II Pocket PC Phone - I'll concentrate primarily on Pocket PC operation.

ActiveSync 3.7.1

Virtually everyone with a Pocket PC or Smartphone will have a copy of ActiveSync on their PC (assuming of course, that you're using a PC) and will be using it in one of two ways, either just syncing the contacts, calendar, tasks and etc. or (if you have a Pocket PC) performing a backup of the volatile memory as well.

For those who are now wondering what the difference is between those two (but only if you have a Pocket PC; more on this later), start ActiveSync on your PC and go to the Backup option of the Tools menu.

This option permits the user to perform a full or incremental backup of all files stored within the device - but excludes both the internal flash Storage and any removable storage. If you believed that the Files section of the synchronisation was doing this for you then think again: only those files specifically listed in the Files section will be synchronised - the rest probably only exist on your Pocket PC.

Once correctly set up, the ActiveSync Backup utility can automatically backup all the changed files in the main memory of your device each time you connect it to your PC.

The shortfall of this method is, of course, if you use either the inbuilt or external storage - ActiveSync simply cannot sync or back it up. This is fine if you don't store volatile data there or are happy to copy/replace this manually but means that you are vulnerable in the event of the device being lost, stolen or destroyed.

The situation for Smartphone owners is even more dire; there is no file synchronisation (as pictured to the right), and no Backup! This means that potentially any file you copy to your Smartphone's flash Storage or storage card could be lost in the event of catastrophe ... and that's where third party applications need to come in.

MobSync 0.8.5 (http://www.interq.or.jp/punk/doino/home/)

This is a free utility I recently came across which attempts to fill the synchronisation hole left by ActiveSync. While still obviously in the early stages of development, MobSync does nonetheless perform a reasonable job of synchronising any storage cards fitted to the device.

Setup is extremely simple; just copy the application exe and help file onto the hard drive of the PC and run it, there is no PPS component as it uses ActiveSync to communicate with the handheld. The interface of MobSync is very simple - a toolbar and a listbox.  The toolbar has just three buttons - Sync, Stop and Options - and the listbox simply shows the configured jobs.

The simplest way to backup or sync a card is to simply create a job which syncs the top level directory of the card with a directory on the PC. Once the job is created, connect the device via ActiveSync and run the job - MobSync then recursively synchronises the selected directories on the device and PC - quickly, simply, flawlessl... ah, yes, well I did say it was in the early stages of development, didn't I.

Where MobSync falls down, sometimes literally, is in its exception handling - it is still quite fragile and does not handle problems well, sometimes simply failing with a cryptic dialog box. Coupled to that it has almost no logging or user feedback - when a job fails it doesn't say why or what failed, only reporting when and how many files failed.

Once a job has failed I find it easiest to simply delete and recreate the pc directory and re-sync. Most of the time the problems occurred as a result of something causing the link to fail between the device and the PC (my dev. box is rather twitchy just now).

MobSync is a product with a great potential future though, in truth, not really much beyond beta quality just now. That said, if you are happy to put up with the occasional manual reconciliation when problems do occur, it makes a fairly satisfactory partner to ActiveSync.

Note: When MobSync copies files between the PC and Pocket PC, it does not convert them so it is best to start with them on the handheld if they are types which are ordinarily converted by ActiveSync. Also, the site and developer are Japanese, however the magic of BabelFish has meant that the developer is happy to discuss enhancements, albeit a little difficult to understand sometimes.

Sprite Backup Premium (http://www.spritesoftware.com)

When I first saw Sprite Backup Premium I thought I had found the perfect backup solution for my Pocket PC and that I would be buying it immediately - sadly this did not prove to be the case. Sprite consists of a backup application, free space utility, Today screen plug-in and a PC service.  The PC application acts as a listener to permit the backup utility on the Pocket PC to save to, and launch the backup from, the PC;  it also permits the PC side to be configured.

When launched on the Pocket PC, Sprite scans the system and builds a selection tree consisting of My Documents, Email, Personal Databases and System Data (containing Other Databases, File System and Registry). Each of these branches shows its contents and each item may be individually selected or cleared. Sadly, the one item of real promise - File System - only contains the file internal structure of the device and doesn't include Storage or any external cards. [Edit: See note* below] The screen also displays the backup filename which can be automatically generated plus an option to backup to a PC. Selecting the Backup button displays the backup screen which shows the backup options and progress bar - pressing Start would trigger the process.

The Options menu permits the configuration of Backup, Restore, Battery Monitoring, Scheduling and Network settings. Backup options enable compression and encryption to be enabled, plus the ability to stop processes before it runs, edit a file exclusion list plus some file management options.  The Stop Process option appears to be rather brutal, stopping everything in sight and does not have an exclusion list; it also doesn't restart the stopped processes on completion.

The exclusion list appears to be the only way to get past problems of locked files, which regularly generated errors and log files to be sent to Sprite.

Backup scheduling permits one one-off, daily or weekly schedule to be configured.  However scheduled backups don't seem to be able to backup to the PC (perhaps in case it isn't connected)  so their value is, to me, minimal - if they could wait until the next connect and then backup to the PC I would like the idea but it didn't appear to be the case.

Battery Monitoring can perform or prompt for a backup when the backup gets below a certain level but again this is only a main memory backup.  Networking simply permits the Remote backup connection to be configured.

The Restore tab of the main screen looks much like the Backup tab and, once a file has been selected, permits the user to select the item(s) to restore.  The options available are just Stop Processes and the cryptically named Automatic Menu Handling.

Where I thought Sprite Backup really lost the plot was with the remote listener service.  The process also had a wide variety of options, some necessarily PC based such as the PC location to store files in, and others simply duplicates of the Pocket PC based settings.  However, given that the PC process can be used to launch both Backups and Restores, it seems bizarre that the available options are not all the same as those on the Pocket PC, nor do the options which are in common reflect the same values - very strange indeed.

Sprite Backup has the potential to be the definitive backup utility for the Pocket PC and Smartphone... but not without some work!  The first thing I believe should be done is to include the internal Storage and any external cards within the backup schema, the second is to sort out the inconsistency between options in the Pocket PC and the PC service. 

Don't get me wrong, Sprite has many things going for it over the ActiveSync option (e.g. individual file/folder selection), but is quite deficient in other areas – I’m afraid I wouldn't buy the current version. It may be the best option for Smartphone owners though, and it seems Sprite recognise this; the Smartphone edition is priced higher than its Pocket PC sibling.

Note: I have intentionally left out discussions of the free space utility and today screen plug-in as I consider them unnecessary bells and whistles.

One final word... support - Sprite support needs work.  I sent an enquiry regarding some behaviour I had noticed, plus a request for an evaluation key to permit a longer assessment - my trial version ran out today as it happens.  After six days I finally got a bland, non-descript (and totally useless), scripted response which could have been generated by an auto-responder but for the time lag - pathetic!  To be fair they did then try to phone me twice (on Anzac day) but that was after I told them I'd mention the poor response in my review… and I still haven’t received a proper e-mail reply.

[Note* : 04-05-2004  I have been advised by a Sprite developer that this is incorrect, the necessary setting is just a little 'buried'.  Accordingly I shall shortly be writing a more in-depth review of Sprite Backup]

SunnySoft Backup Manager (http://www.sunnysoft.cz/)

This shareware application permits the user to backup the whole device, including Storage and externals cards… yes! ...to a Storage Card!  Damn, so close and yet so far. 

The interface has three tabs - System, Backup and User Locations. 

System displays a treeview containing Database (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Mail and other...), Registry and Files (internal file structure). 

The Backups tab is a listview contain a list of all available backup files, from which a restore may be run. 

The User Locations tab permits the user define target locations for the backup files to be stored in.

Running a backup is relatively simple - select the elements to backup on the first tab and run it.  The User Locations tab definitely needs improvement though - even with the on-line tutorial, it took a couple of goes before I got it to work properly and before the tutorial I was at a total loss as to making it do anything but confuse me further.

Running a restore is equally simple, tap the backup file in question and run Restore - a treeview of the contents is displayed (all turned off, thankfully), tick the desired elements and tap OK.

SunnySoft have managed to keep the backup concept relatively simple and efficient, with the exception of the Locations screen.  For a backup to memory/card application it's not too bad.

Conclusion

Pocket PC Backups are an area of great deficiency in my opinion, there are numerous partial solutions out there but not one does what I require - to protect me from the total loss of my device, including data stored on removable media which is not removed at the time of the loss! Third party solutions are, however, the only way to go for Smartphone owners.

If you're happy to backup to removable media... and then remove it, you should find a number of utilities out there which should suffice.  I however have this thing called a PC which already has much of the data on it already and is also backed up (though perhaps too infrequently, if truth be told).  To me it seems daft not to backup ALL the data from the handheld to the same place - it's easier to manage too.

My current solution... ActiveSync together with MobSync!  ActiveSync takes care of a quite satisfactory automated backup of the rapidly changing and most valuable data albeit less flexibly than Sprite, MobSync takes care of the more irregular and minor changes on the Storage and Storage card.  Admittedly I tend to zip the PC target locations just before MobSync runs as a precaution, but since it is syncing both ways a error can result in data being deleted on the PC rather than replaced if the link fails at the wrong time.  Nonetheless, I am now in the more comfortable position of simply being able to easily recover all files to a new card/device if necessary.