I don't wanna lose all my information.

August 6, 2006 9:32 AM

Please don't let me lose all of my phone numbers, datebook, project filing, etc... (You need not be treo-conversant to answer this, but it might help a little.)

So my treo 600 dies. Long story.

Then, literally the next day, the motherboard on my laptop (dell inspiron 5100) is fried. (And I'm in rural Missouri to record a podcast, but that's neither here nor there.)

A week later, I'm able to transfer to a new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite, and I get a drive-caddy to retrieve the hard-drive of the old laptop, including the handspring files. I purchase a new treo 650, and install the CD, thinking that I'll just be able to simply import the old addresses, etc.

There's a problem. Not only is the format not correct (the old address, dates, etc. are all .dat files and I need .dba or .vcs files), but, even though the file is on an external drive, the old Palm program, when I try to open it, begins with the program screen of the new palm one software, then says "Error: Invalid Configration. Terminating the Palm Desktop."

I really, REALLY don't want to lose all of my old addresses and phone numbers and project filing...what do I do now?

posted by Ash3000 to technology (7 comments total)

According to this page .dat and .dba files have identical formats. You should be able to simply rename one as the other. You could try copying the old .dat files over the new .dba formats and see if that fixes things.

You may also have some luck tracking down an old version of Palm Desktop that would read your files.
posted by i love cheese at 10:34 AM on August 6, 2006

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "copying the old .dat files over the new .dba formats"? Also, I've tried to rename files, e.g. address.dat to address.dba, but I only end up with address.dba.dat. Thanks!
posted by Ash3000 at 10:42 AM on August 6, 2006

I'd try setting up the new Treo first and then replacing the .dba files manually (copy and paste into Windows explorer) ?

I think that I did this a few months ago when a similar problem happened to me and although I lost my categories, I got back my calendar, contacts, and memos.
posted by k8t at 10:52 AM on August 6, 2006

I'm not sure I understand - how do you replace the .dba files at all when you're dealing with .dat and you don't know how to convert them?
posted by Ash3000 at 12:42 PM on August 6, 2006

What version of Palm OS was your old stuff in? Also, have you posted this in the Palm One forums?
posted by k8t at 1:36 PM on August 6, 2006

I don't know which version - how would I find out?
posted by Ash3000 at 4:45 PM on August 6, 2006

I am pretty sure you can do this:

Install Palm desktop on your new machine.

Assuming your name is Morissey:

Copy (somehow) your old c:/program files/Palm/Morissey files and folders (all of them) onto a thumbdrive or some other kind of backup

Copy your c:/program files/Palm/Morissey files (EXCEPT FOR your ARCHIVE and BACKUP folders) onto your new computer, into the C:/program files/Morissey folder.

Sync with the desktop overwrites handeld coundit setting for everything and sync your new Treo to the new computer.
posted by 4ster at 5:31 PM on August 6, 2006