Original Post from Jornada 720/8 Born On Date (Part 2)
And hereby hangs a tale... the old saws about Activesync are perfectly correct. Here is one 720 "upgraded" to 728 by using a board from a scrapper... the BOD is 06-02-2002, and the test also shows different Serial Number and GUID to an original 728, which has BOD 19/11/2002.
The first Jornada has my favourite setup on it, and is also backed up via Activesync to Guest on an ancient Toshiba 4010CDT running 98SE. The second is a clean machine... upon which I was hoping to duplicate the first.
Now I'm no programmer, but I can see how the microbes at Microshaft might well have decided that duplicating a system setup on to another device was not in their interests or indeed the interests of their many commercial customers... and at the time maybe they had a point. But it hardly applies nearly so much now.
Given these three salient differences which we now know of... ROM Serial Number, GUID, and BOD, I have to wonder if this is actually what is at the bottom of Activesync's
(3.8
) blanket refusal to restore the image from one Jornada on to another equivalent. I'll be looking at these STG files with a hex editor next.
In trawling for an alternate backup program, which I had hoped might have a less inflexible set of rules, I have met with little success. However I have also found STG viewer... which doesn't help me much here I admit, but it may yet prove useful as this issue progresses. It does give some limited access to Activesync backup files after all.
And also in these trawls, I have found many posts on various other forums and concerning various other devices too, which have had a similar theme.
Perhaps a sage here can help more.
Addendum
No luck so far with the Hex Editor and the STG
(and also when you create a partnership, the data file it creates
). There seems to be a certain amount of adherence to the inclusion of joker
(zero
) characters
(presumably to conceal coherent entries in the files
) with one notable exception... STG files created so far with three different Jornadas... 728, 720 with 728 board, and 720, have all included the string "HP Jornada 720,, 9546, USEnglish SAA" at location 83C, irrespective of their true status as 728 or 720.
Tantalisingly, STG also shows a file called Backup Set Information, but will not let you restore it to disc.
This question has arisen in the past, and apparently been resolved too... most especially by people using pocket PCs who were able to upgrade ROMS... because this entry appears in a Google and might well resolve the issue... if only the link to the solution was still live... :-
(
(
http://forum.brighthand.com/showthread.php?t=125640
So near and yet so far… can anyone remember this solution please?
The aged Tosh 4010CDT which I am using to maintain an Activesync connection to the J720s, is a cheap and cheerful solution
(a friend was upgrading, and about to bin it
) and provides access which is no longer available otherwise via
(bl**dy
) Vista... even the so-called Vista Ultimate.
It occasionally also does duty as a host to my even-more ancient Atari Portfolios, which require DOS and a Parallel Port.
You will find, if you ever have cause to look, that modern Tablets and Laptops have no serial ports any longer, let alone a Parallel Port. Furthermore, the plethora of PCMCIA/Express card solutions to this will invariably map the port
(s
) that they provide into “non-standard” memory locations, thus neutering their use by older software which presumes their fixed locations in memory. These are now referred to as Legacy Locations apparently. Only one other solution has presented itself so far… the giant Acer Laptops that we use, with 20” screens… so you need a pretty strong lap… also come with serial and parallel ports hard-wired in the old memory locations. I have not yet got around to testing them with the Portfolios though.
The new Vista drivers offered here
(thankyou HPC Factor
) prompted our Vista to offer an upgrade
(among many others almost daily
) to the extant Windoze Mobile Device Centre, which in turn now
(after some huffing and puffing
) gives straight file access to these old J720 Pocket PCs. Nowhere near the speed of access to our Ameos also via USB, but functionally not disimillar.
I realise that the ActiveSync issue that I am having is something of an arcane problem. However it seems to have arisen before, and it seems to have been simply resolved before. And it seems to me to be one which Jornada-users at any rate, could usefully employ, as their hardware degrades and fails and they are forced to seek alternative hardware... but would naturally prefer to keep the setup that they worked so hard to build.
QF
