I have read so many urgent threads from users who encountered some kind of irreversible problem with their Pocket PCs and either lost all their data or had to perform a full reset to restore the Pocket PC to working order.  Given the urgency of their requests for assistance and their reluctance to follow through on offered advice (often times the advice being to perform a full reset of the device), I have come to believe that many users do not backup their Pocket PCs as frequently as they should (if ever).

At a minimum, you should backup your Pocket PC before you install new software to it or before you mess around with the registry or delete files.

As an added precaution, you should use ActiveSync to perform regular syncs of your data to your computer. Doing so will "backup" your personal data (contacts, appointments, documents) to your computer.  

If you perform a ROM update or if your Pocket PC is ever lost or broken, you probably will not be able to restore a backup file created on your old Pocket PC (and under the old ROM) to a new Pocket PC (or to a newly upgraded via ROM update Pocket PC). But you will always be able to sync this data from your computer to another Pocket PC.

I recommend that you maintain a document on your computer that details all of the user-specific settings you may need to reprogram into your Pocket PC, such as WIFI settings, POP3 email account settings, Bluetooth settings, etc, as well as a complete list of license keys for any software you have purchased and installed to the Pocket PC.  Also be sure to keep copies of any software installation files you've used to install software to the Pocket PC.  

Never rely on your Pocket PC as the primary repository of your data.

Backup Options
Many Pocket PCs with Windows Mobile 2003SE or an earlier operating system have the IPAQ Backup software on it (look for it in the programs screen). This backup software, which was developed by Sprite and privately branded for HP, is very versatile.  You can use IPAQ Backup to backup your data to a storage card, and you can use the software's advanced features to configure the software to automatically backup your Pocket PC daily or weekly at a specific time, or you can activate something called PIM mirroring, which will automatically backup your PIM data to IPAQ Filestore and then automatically restore this data if you ever hard reset your Pocket PC (or if the battery every goes flat and hard resets your Pocket PC).  Windows Mobile 2003 SE or earlier operating system Pocket PCs can also be backed up through ActiveSync's Backup option (look under the Tools menu item).

Pocket PCs with the WM5.0 operating system do not have any pre-installed backup software and ActiveSync's backup option is not available for these Pocket PCs. If you have a WM5.0 Pocket PC, you need to purchase backup software, and you've got a couple of options:

• Sprite ($29.95):  You can download a 10 day trial version of this software.
• Sunnysoft ($20):  You can download a 7 day fully functional trial version of this software.
• SPB Backup by SPB Software house ($19.95): You can download a trial version of SPB Backup (which allows you to perform 5 different backup of the software). 
• SKTools includes a Backup option that allows you to backup the registry, databases (this is where your Outlook data is stored), Files, ActiveSync partnership, Self-Backup, PIM, Pocket Outlook folders or All system. However, SKTools provides a warning on its website that the backup "function may not work properly on all devices and/or software combinations." It further states that "in some cases, you will not be able to restore 100% of your data from the backup file."  So it's probably not a good idea to rely on this software as your primary means of backing up your pocket pc.
  

I tried out the SPB Backup and Sprite Backup applications on my hw6925.  I found SPB Backup to be a solid piece of software with a great user interface, but it did not include as much flexibility as the Sprite Backup application.  Since I am already very familiar with Sprite backup (I have IPAQ backup on two of my older Pocket PCs) and since I like the added flexibility Sprite Backup offers, I purchased the Sprite Backup software even though it is the most expensive of them all.

If you are not sure which backup software to use, download the trial versions of the software and try them out to see which one suits you.  Menneisyys, a well known Pocket PC expert, has written an excellent comparative article about these backup software which you might find interesting:  Everything you need to know about backing up (and, thus, securing) the contents of your Pocket PC


Restoring from a Backup is not always advisable
As previously stated, most backup files cannot be restored to a different Pocket PC or to a newly ROM upgraded device.  So be sure you keep your Pocket PC synced up to your computer.

There are times when you may not be able to safely restore from a backup file.  For instance, if you've been having serious problems with your Pocket PC and decide to perform a full reset to resolve the problem, restoring from your most previous backup file will likely restore whatever was causing your problems in the first place.  In this case, it is better to rebuild your Pocket PC from scratch.  What this means is you need to manually set up all your user settings and reinstall software to your Pocket PC.  If you follow the advice offered here, rebuilding your Pocket PC, although time consuming, should be fairly easy.  Then as soon as you've got the Pocket PC set up just the way you want it, perform a complete backup and save THAT backup file to a safe place on your computer.  If you perform another full reset, you can restore from that backup file and be back in business without having to spend hours rebuilding the Pocket PC.

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