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How To Restore Deleted Data

If data is deleted, either manually or through a synchronization, in some cases, this data can be restored. ALWAYS make a backup of your data before synchronizing the first time or after making a change to your CompanionLink/DoubleLook/DoubleNotes settings.

Below are instructions for restoring data to Outlook and Palm Desktop.

Outlook

Please see How to restore deleted items.


Palm Desktop

First, turn CompanionLink off. You can do this by opening CompanionLink Setup, clicking on the File menu and selecting Reset Palm Hotsync Settings. Exit CompanionLink when this has finished.

The instructions below will put your Palm Desktop data back into your handheld. This does not mean that CompanionLink is correctly configured. If your data was wiped out by synching with CompanionLink, please contact us after you have done these steps so that we can configure CompanionLink properly to avoid this happening again.

  1. Open your Palm folder. This may in one of several different locations, depending on your type of handheld. Typical locations include:
    1. c:\Palm
    2. c:\Program Files\Palm Desktop
    3. c:\Program Files\Handspring
    4. c:\Program Files\Sony Handhelds
  2. Open the folder that bears your Palm username or a version of it.
  3. Open the folder with the data you want to retrieve (address, datebook, todo or memopad).
  4. Look for a file with the folder name plus the extension of .dat, such as address.dat. If you do not have extensions turned on, this will be the only file with no extension.
  5. Rename the .dat file to .old. For example, rename memopad.dat to memopad.old.
  6. Go to the View menu and choose Details.
  7. Find the file in this folder that is dated prior to the sync that deleted your data. This file is generally larger than the original .dat file.
  8. Right-click this file and choose Copy. Then right-click a blank space in the folder and choose Paste. This will create a copy of the file.
  9. Right-click the file from step 7 and choose Rename.
  10. Rename the file to .dat. For example, rename todo.001 to todo.dat.
  11. Open Palm Desktop.
  12. Your data should now be there. If your data is still not there, repeat steps 5 to 11 until you have found the correct backup file.
  13. If you are restoring more than one area, repeat steps 1 to 12 until you have retrieved all of your data.
  14. Right-click the red and blue Hotsync Manager icon in the lower righthand corner of computer desktop by the clock.
  15. Choose Custom.
  16. Look for the conduit that you restored data for and highlight it. For example, 'Memopad'. (Note: If this says CompanionLink Memopad, stop here, as there is a problem.)
  17. Click Change.
  18. Change the transfer method to Desktop Overwrites Handheld. Do NOT click 'Set as default'.
  19. Click OK
  20. Repeat steps 16 through 18 for each conduit you have need to restore.
  21. Click Done.
  22. Sync your handheld. When the sync finishes, all of your data should be back on your handheld.