How many times has this happened to you?

William,

Hi. I love your site and really need your help. I recently installed a program on my Dell Axim X50 and after the install, I was told to do a soft reset. After the reset, all of my data was gone and I had to set up my PDA just like when it was new again. Is there anyway to get all of my data back?

Thanks, Sheryl K.

No matter what type of PDA, this will happen to all of us at least once, if not a few times as PDA owners. A PDA is no different than your home computer when it comes to those occasional data destroying crashes. After corresponding with Sheryl, we determined she didn't have a current backup, so besides salvaging a few things in her favorites folder, all of her data was gone. So for Pocket PC owners, if you'd don't have an existing backup, unfortunately your data is probably gone for good. Palm PDA users have it a little easier because usually it just takes a HotSync to backup your existing data (some programs may need to be reinstalled).

If your Pocket PC or Windows Mobile PDA crashes and you already have a backup, all you need to do is follow this Step-by-Step tutorial:

Restoring Data on a Pocket PC

If you haven't backed up your PDA yet, you need to follow this Step-by-Step immediately:

Backing up Data on a Pocket PC

While I responded to Sheryl's email, I wanted to share this with our readers to let you know how important it is to backup your PDA now. Trust me, it'll be well worth the 10 minute time investment.