More than most Pocket

PC users, I have had need of reliable backup and restoration

software. In less than a year I have seen over 100

hard resets, all of these with the Casio EG-800, a

model which has proven most entertaining. I’ve had

5 now, with various defects in the first 4. Restoration

of this model has in my experience been a very tricky

job, requiring a multifaceted approach and considerable

inventiveness. Not at all like the relative ease I

had experienced with my previous device, an E-115.

But even there, I had worried about having but limited

options for backup and restore operations. Configuring

a device to a satisfyingly efficient degree takes

time, and is a job never finished when the user always

wants the latest and best software. A couple of my

own approaches together with a couple of new programs

helped ease my mind, but no single method on its own

would suffice. Well, it seems my nerves can take a

rest now. Sprite:Lite,

the backup/restore utility, has arrived.

    Other backup utilities like CF

Backup or ActiveSync Backup (see note below)

prevent the user from deciding just what is being

stored, and often leave him frustrated at the all-or-nothing

nature of restores. Sprite:Lite offers partial or

full backup, and even more options for restoration.

It gives the user control. However, it cannot yet

access database or registry.

    There is now a rather impressive

    There has never before

been anything like this for PPC, so it’s new territory.

Registry and Databases can be protected with PhatWare’s

dbExplorer,

but this handles the file system also, in a way that

offers an impressive level of user control. This company

was also responsible for Norton’s /Symantec’s Ghost.

    Installation via ActiveSync

connection is straightforward. Just open the installer

and follow the wizard. Of course, being a bit contrary

by nature, I’ve installed the various betas by using

the Casio alone, the files only passing through ActiveSync

so that I could report accurately here. By renaming

the install .exe file to .zip, I was able to extract

the MIPS .cab file with Resco’s zip utility, then

tap-install it. And as the beta program is designed

to be location-independent, moving to the location

of my preference (my Flash Disk2System folder) is

a breeze. I like to keep things organized. However,

the release version is supposedly not to be moved

once installed, so when it comes available choose

‘No’ to the ‘Install program to default location’

question during the ActiveSync/CE Manager dialogue

if preferred. A drop-down list there will display

any alternate locations you might currently have available,

usually Main Memory or Storage Card. I suspect that

relocation of the executable should be possible with

a little registry tinkering, modifying the program

    Sprite:Lite’s first window

is like the rest; simple, uncluttered, businesslike.

It offers a default backup location and filename: My

DocumentsPersonalppc_image.sif, or Storage CardMy

DocumentsPersonalppc_image.sif if a card is inserted

before the program is launched.

    As illustrated above, the program

uses the first off-device location it finds as the default,

searching alphabetically. More accurately in my case,

the first non-main memory location, as the EG-800′s

Flash Disk is actually about 1 mb of onboard flash

memory. I could choose this location, if for only registry

backup. Perhaps databases as well if I chose to create

a compressed backup file… more on that in a minute.

My Flash Disk2 location (~13 mb, also onboard) is not

chosen, as it’s name is next in line alphabetically.

But one could also choose this using the browse function.

    Here one may choose any folder in

any storage location preferred. I use a thrice-partitioned

Accurite hard drive, so I have many choices. I use Storage

CardMy DocumentsBackup, as I also run daily backups

to a Lexar CF card. Once a location is chosen, configuration

is available. Or one may leave the defaults checked.

This is the fourth (and last) window:

    The 2nd window is for restoration,

allowing wholesale restoration of Registry, File System,

and Databases (e-mail, Calendar, Contacts, system databases,

etc.) separately, or in any combination of one or more,

provided that each has been backed up separately.

This restriction seems only to apply to registry and

databases, not files. Included is another file browser

button, but this one reveals a window displaying all

available .sip files.

    Options found in the 3rd window allow

selective restoration of files from either an uncompressed

or compressed .sip file. These include individual files,

and folders at any level up to the root.

    For comparison, here are clockings

under the same circumstances using the Casio’s built-in

CF Backup utility with each of these storage devices:

    As you see, there is a lot of

flexibility here. However, registry and database

files are not available in part, only as entire

units via the checkboxes in window 2 (look to dbExplorer

for a more selective database backup).

    Here’s a comparison table of

speeds writing files to several media, all after

soft reset, all with approximately 8.3 mb of user

data. Resulting image file size was about 11.6 mb

uncompressed, 6.2 mb compressed. Each medium had

been run through a cleanup/scandisk/defragmentation

routine within 24 hours of testing. Minimum of 12

mb free Program Memory available, and just rebooted

before every test.

    Bear in mind, the Pocket PC almost

always compresses files to some degree. This is highly

variable depending on file type, but as a general

rule allow for about 25% or more increased file size

when moving files to a storage card or PC. In the

case used here, this translates to 8.3 mb of onboard

files becoming an 11.6 mb .sip file. Ensure there

is room on your storage media or you will get this

performance using a MicroDrive to that with the

Accurite.

    Here is a shot of the progress

after 30 seconds to CF, at 16% of total progress.

For obvious reasons, a screen capture is not likely

during a file restore. Also, here is a picture of

the sprite.log file generated by a successful backup.

This particular log shows that I had left programs

running, so as to make screenshots possible. There

are several omissions as a result.

    No Help files, so I don’t

know what the final online support/Help file will

be like yet. The program is so intuitive that little

explanation is needed. E-mail reply by Sprite staff

was excellent and fast, always good with beta programs.

    Files may be backed up

to main memory and then exported later to CF, or to

I would really like as much user control as possible,

right down to particular registry keys and database

files. Though not strictly necessary, such would allow

debugging an especially messed-up system. A recent

experience is a good example of how this might be

very useful:

    Somehow my registry became corrupt.

A number of ways of searching finally revealed the

location of ‘false’ entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftShellRai:MSTASKS

which had a blank icon (no way to tell if it was a

DWORD, binary, or string value), with a long string

of alphanumeric pairs for a value visible in the tree

view of PHM’s

regedit. It shifted between one and three of these,

each different, depending on when I looked. No other

location had anything like these. The result was a

backup failure error in any attempt to copy the registry.

The string could not be opened, copied, or deleted.

    Now, if Sprite:Lite allowed exporting the entire registry except for this key, I could have done so, then wiped my entire device, then restored using this ‘cleaned’ registry.

    Something which at first seemed to be a bug was actually a failure on my part to understand the obvious. I was leaving the ‘stop processes before backup’ box checked, but on completion I was unable to exit the program. This was because I was leaving Gigabar running, and when Sprite:Lite shut it down, it’s ‘OK’ button was killed, leaving no exit. Button mapping is also killed this way, so my Action+B2 mapping to ZapIt!.exe was failing. Powering off and on caused an error: “An unexpected error has occurred in the shell… attempting to restart the shell”. This would fail. Soft reset was the only way out. So for now I just reset after backup. I do so before as well, to keep things clean in the backup file. When the full release is out this will be resolved. I tell this because it may prove to be of broader use for users. This has not proved necessary for partial or wholesale file system restoration. Files are quickly replaced, and it is business as usual. Beta software inevitably has bugs. Sprite:Lite has had at least one very serious bug in a previous beta, potentially costing users all data on a Storage Card. (Happily, I missed that one.) But the payoff is better software. In this case, I suspect, some of the best.

Sprite:Lite is available directly from the developer

at Sprite

Software. Cost is zero: it’s freeware. A pro version

will also be available in December, price not yet

announced, with these added features quoted from Sprite’s

pages:

SPRITE: FULL VERSION