Palm crashed and I lost all data - Help w/ Restore

[Lokahi117]

My palm had an issue where whenever I went into pocketmoney (hereafter referred to as PM) it would crash. So I did a hard reset and then went to hotsync to get everything back and somehow PM went back on however it did reload all the accounts I had in there. I then attempted to make a copy of a backup folder from another laptop (i hotsynced most of what I needed on three seperate computers.) When I did this however it just kinda assimilated the blank stuff to rewrite what I had. so I have one more virgin copy of my data on my other laptop and I need help getting it backed up. I have been using my palm for a while without it and can't just hard reset the device and accept the old backup version for the other apps (to do list etc) so what I need is how to take the old pocketmoney backups and make the device upload those. I am confused though because some of the backup blanks are bigger than the old ones I think are my real info. Why is that I assumed that the bigger file would be the one with all the info not the relatively smaller ones. For example my blank PM-accounts is 2.72 kb and the one i believe is my legit info is 2.06kb. oh I just thought of this...is there a way to take the backup and import it into microsoft money because I really dont need the accounts on my palm cause they are all old I just need the info so if anyone questions how much they owe or how I came the figure I can clearly show them. I had a person whom I loaned over five years a lot of money and I need to be able to account for it when he get his money soon. This new solution would be ideal. it is in pdb format so please help. thank you Harrison p.s your software rocks and I have used it for many years and nothing else comes close to its capabilities. I have a buddy witha blackberry that is always trying to find something and never can. Is there any way to make it adapt to Blackberry. just curious.

[HardyMacia]

Lokahi,

You can try using PocketMoney for Desktop alpha version to look at your PDB files.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=21

This will let you look at the different sets of PM-*.pdb files you have to figure out which set is the most current.

Once you figure out which set of data is your most current, then you can tell HotSync to "Install Handheld Files" for those PDB files and it will sync them to your Palm.

I don't have any plans for BlackBerry...although if I had more time in life, I've gotten enough request for PocketMoney for BlackBerry that I'd love to do it, but just don't have time now with all of the iPhone stuff going on.

- Hardy

[Lokahi117]

Thanks hardy for your quick response. I did find in the user manual on your site how to get the conduit installed so I could take the backups and get it pulled into microsoft money which is the best solution for me. however I don't find the custom settings that the instructions mention when i click on the hotsync icon in my system tray. is it because I have just installed pocketmoney on this computer. Meaning I have had pm on my palms for many years and this laptop has the palm software on it but not the pm software (because I always just used PM on my palm and never messed with the desktop portion.) so when I read the instructions I got my pocketmoney cd and uploaded it but I dont see the menu the way it says I should in the hotsync icon menu. could it be because I have a newer version of palm desktop.

[Lokahi117]

nevermind i think i just found it. I think its cause I have newer version of palm desktop than was available at the time that the manual was printed up.

[Lokahi117]

ahhh....i think i see now why it won't work. I need to be able to take the PM backup files in the PDB format directly into MS money and the conduit requires that it get it info for conversion from the palm first.. I don't suppose there is a way to take those PDB files and change them to a file that I can import directly into my MS money is there?

[HardyMacia]

You want to set the conduit setting for PocketMoney to the file format to QIF-Old. Then Sync. THis will create a qif file for each account you have, and you can import them into MS Money.

- Hardy

[Lokahi117]

I have not been able to get the files to show up in the topalm or frompalm folders and I have tried lots of ways. I have looked for other folders that might contain them but it looks like (from some of the other posts) that others were having this issue as well. Do you know why it doesn't show up? I am really needing this info off of their or is there any way for me to convert a pdb file to qif by some other means. or into an exel file or anthing like that. please help i am desperate as you can see by the time of this post. i have been working on this all day since my previous posts. Thank you. the reason i am having this issue is all of a sudden pocket money would cause my palm to crash and reset anytime i tried to open it. so i deleted pm and allowed hotsnc to reinstall but with no luck same issue. I have isolated it down to i believe my pdb accounts or transactions file. is there anyway to debug it or anything like that. thanks again hardy for your time

[Lokahi117]

i found some software that seems to do just what I want though it is in tar.gz format or something and I cant get windows to open it. It was talking about unix system..Is there any way that you know of to get this software to work on windows because the program info claims to convert pdb pocketmoney files to qif easily. here is the link that describes the software (you being a software guro you can probably make sense very quickly what i can do with this software or whether it will work at all) http://handhelds.freshmeat.net/projects/pm2qif

I look forward to your reply. this problem is rapidly becoming my moby dick. I just i hope it doesn't kill me like capt. ahab.

[HardyMacia]

You don't want to use the GnuCash PMtoQIF. You can, but no reason to.

Let's make sure you have the correct PocketMoney Conduit....

If you open the Custom settings for HotSync what does the PocketMoney conduit settings window look like?

1. Does it have options for File Type (QIF, QIF Old, TDF), Date Type, Number type?

2. Or does it only have 4 options for pc->handheld, handheld->pc,..?

If 2, then install it from my site and see if you get the version 1 of the conduit.
http://www.catamount.com/PalmApps/Pocke ... l#download

[Lokahi117]

I feel kinda stupid now that I searched the net for so long looking for that gnucash program and you mention it on the main page of this site. In response to your query I have several options including file format date format, number format, seperator and hotsync direction. So i believe I have the number one conduit your mentioned in the above post. I do see the topalm and frompalm folder on the computer in the pocketmoney folder which is in the palm os desktop folder which is in my documents. But still no files appearing in those folders and I currently have both hotsync directions checked and i have include all transactions checked.

[HardyMacia]

Do a sync, then search for PocketMoney.qif or all files with .qif to see if HotSync is putting the files somewhere differently.

[Lokahi117]

i ran a search for all files and folders and hit .qif in the search box.
I searched all of c drive and it came back with no results. Is there another way for me to get this info. Can i give you the files and see if you can get them open. I saw in another post where you offered to do this for someone. I would sure appreciate it.

[Lokahi117]

Hey Hardy,
Sorry to keep this post alive so long but I never did get my issue solved and have checked back regularly to see if I had a response from you about it. I know your are probably really busy with iphone stuff and I want to first thank you for even still supporting our palm devices as they seem to be going the way of the dinosaur. Its rare that a person does whats right by there customers the way you do. I appear to have a corrupted file and can't get a sync to put the files on desktop. I would really love to be able to do this but more importantly I need the older files opened into a qif or microsoft money file (prefered) because It contains a lot of my info for my three businesses. I basically ran the books for those businesses from my palm and now i cant get the info off of it and its becoming a tax problem unless i can get the info off. So please anyway you could help me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Harrison. I dont know if its easier for your but you can call me at 208-272-1276 if its faster or easier for you to handle it that way. Thanks again.

[HardyMacia]

Sorry Harrision I missed your post back in June. Send me the files you have and the details of what's going on to support@catamount.com and I'll see if I can recover the data for you.

- Hardy