Massive Data Loss

[gusl]

This Tuesday night, my PDA broke. This happens about once or twice a year. So wednesday I was desperate, reaching for the Palm whenever I want to: check the time, take notes, call somebody, remind myself to do anything (especially go places).

Staples's $45 replacement plan sucks. I had to wait in line. I called them twice, and they still haven't gotten back to me. (48 hours, they said). I will be interrogated again, and if I succeed, they will send me a Palm VIIx gift-certificate on the mail. The whole process will take at least a week, and what the FUCK am I supposed to do in the meantime??

Well, yesterday I bought a Visor for $140, with the option of returning it after 14 days if I pay a 15% ($21) restocking fee. I might keep it.

So I get home and install the new cradle. It requires a driver, and Windows can't find it in the CD. So I run setup.exe on the CD, and reinstall Palm Desktop (newer should be better, right?). Can you guess what just happened? The reinstallation erased all my data!Have they ever heard of separation of program and data??? The old Palm had to be hard-reset for the Staples staff to give me a case number, so I lost everything. If you know me, you know this is a *LOT*. I probably write about 60 words a day, and this database was 3 years old. It had more than 1200 memos. It started with my first Palm, which I got after physically breaking my SHARP organizer.

No questions were asked. No backup had been made. Why do computers suck so many years after Donald Norman?

So now I'm reconstructing everything..... a slow and painful process. But I'm realizing I didn't really use 95% of what I had.

Comments

[madbard.livejournal.com]

Didn't you hotsynch everything to your computer?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Yes.
But, as I said, the data on the computer was erased by the new installation. Not a copy was saved.

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

I made the same discovery when reinstalling. Luckily I still had the data on my old PDA. Why can't they put your data under Documents and Settings which is at least a sort of standard. Alternatively the install should give you some options instead of just sticking data under the Palm folder. Furthermore the Palm folder itself ought to be under Program Files which is even more of a standard.
Yes, I know Microsoft sucks at standards but if they make the attempt, then anyone writing Windows software ought to comply.