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From: ChrisOK on 3 Jan 2008 02:05
Todd, you mention the file: "pim.vol" file below.
I too have just had ALL my contacts within my pcphone wiped out with
ActiveSync while trying to get it to work!
You may have saved my life b/c I was able to locate the pim.vol file on the
phone and it says it is 404.0 K (which leads me to believe it still holds my
life!!)

I was told by the phone provider an hour ago that once the delete is done,
it wipes it from the phone's hard drive...I'm thinking maybe the tech was
wrong - now that I'm seeing this file you mention!!!

I have not been able to successfully sync to my laptop yet (new phone)....
These contacts were transferred over by the phone provider with their
machine...and they kept my old phone (turn-in rebate 3 wks ago).....

Hence, my phone is the ONLY place they exist!
Today, my 2GB miniSD card arrived FedEx...so, I've successfully copied that
"pim.vol" file to it as a back up....hoping contacts can be salvaged from the
phone or the card.

QUESTIONS:
(1) How can I restore the contacts to my phone?
(2) Is the pim.vol file 'the motherload'? (is it all that I need, or are
there other associated files that go WITH this file....required before
restoration can happen?

I'm an I.T. person by profession so this is extremely frustrating; however,
a phone expert I'm not! Your step by step direction would be GREATLY
appreciated....
Chris
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Todd Allcock" wrote:

> At 14 Dec 2007 10:22:13 -0500 Ken Varn wrote:
> > Can someone tell me the difference between the Sync. Settings for
> > Contacts to Exchange vs. Contacts to PC? They seem to be the same.
>
> Well, if your PC syncs to an Exchange server, they would be.
>
> > Either way, my contacts show up in Outlook. I am confused if I
> > select PC for the Contacts.
> > Where do they get stored when PC is selected?
>
>
> Either way they're stored on the phone in a "pim.vol" file in the phone's
> main memory.
> > Also, why does ActiveSync want to delete the contacts on my PDA phone
> when I
> > try to uncheck Contacts from the Sync. selection menu?
>
>
> This is new with WM6. I ASSUME (and you know what they say about assuming!)
> that this is a "business friendly" feature designed to automatically and
> easily remove business PIM data from a device when deleting a partnership,
> and preventing the merger of data from two different sources when changing
> sync sources. (In the past, for example, deleting a partnership left all
> the data intact, merging it with the data on the next PC you sync'ed to.
> My guess is that this was an attempt to "protect" your company's corporate
> Exchange server from pushing your kids' soccer schedule and the PTA's phone
> numbers to everyone in the organization!)
>
> (Of course, if true, this is just a kludge for the "problem." A true
> solution would be to allow different profiles to be set up on the device to
> keep "work" and "home" PIM data separate, or at the very least, allow
> filtering by category to avoid syncing "business" items at home, or
> "personal" ones at work!)
>
> To work around the deletion problem, you can Google for a neat little free
> utility called PIMBackup. Backup your PIM data, delete your partnership
> (thereby deleting all PIM data from the device) then restore it all from
> the backup.
>
>
>
From: Todd Allcock on 4 Jan 2008 02:09
At 02 Jan 2008 23:05:00 -0800 ChrisOK wrote:
> Todd, you mention the file: "pim.vol" file below.
> I too have just had ALL my contacts within my pcphone wiped out with
> ActiveSync while trying to get it to work!
> You may have saved my life b/c I was able to locate the pim.vol file on
the
> phone and it says it is 404.0 K (which leads me to believe it still holds
my
> life!!)


Don't thank me yet!


> QUESTIONS:
> (1) How can I restore the contacts to my phone?


I don't know- the one time I tried copying the PIM.vol file after a hard-
reset (to save time out of lazyness- the initial sync when you have 500+
contacts and 100+ calendar entries takes forever!) was a total failure- I
got some sort of error message (I don't remember exactly) telling me
something was corrupted and I had to hard-reset again.

> (2) Is the pim.vol file 'the motherload'? (is it all that I need, or are
> there other associated files that go WITH this file....required before
> restoration can happen?


My guess is that there some kind of index file as well that has to jive
with the pim.vol (which would explain why it alone didn't work.) I'd also
guess that deleting PIM data resets this file, so you're likely already too
late, unless you can open the pim.vo
, say, with a hex editor and convert/extract the info manually (good luck!)


> I'm an I.T. person by profession so this is extremely frustrating;

And, as an IT person, how many times have you told others to "backup, backup,
backup!"? (Just kidding- we've all been there!)

> however,
> a phone expert I'm not! Your step by step direction would be GREATLY
> appreciated....


If only I had one! AFAIK, the pim.vol format is proprietary.

400k sounds relatively small. I currently am up to 600 contacts (and down
to about 4 dozen calendar items) and my pim.vol is 2.77MB. 400kb sounds
familiar- perhaps that's the size of a "blank" pim.vol?


From: ChrisOK on 6 Jan 2008 15:13
****SEE ASTERISKS****

"Todd Allcock" wrote:

> At 02 Jan 2008 23:05:00 -0800 ChrisOK wrote:
> > Todd, you mention the file: "pim.vol" file below.
> > I too have just had ALL my contacts within my pcphone wiped out with
> > ActiveSync while trying to get it to work!
> > You may have saved my life b/c I was able to locate the pim.vol file on
> the
> > phone and it says it is 404.0 K (which leads me to believe it still holds
> my
> > life!!)
>
>
> Don't thank me yet!
>
>
> > QUESTIONS:
> > (1) How can I restore the contacts to my phone?
>
>
> I don't know- the one time I tried copying the PIM.vol file after a hard-
> reset (to save time out of lazyness- the initial sync when you have 500+
> contacts and 100+ calendar entries takes forever!) was a total failure- I
> got some sort of error message (I don't remember exactly) telling me
> something was corrupted and I had to hard-reset again.
>
> > (2) Is the pim.vol file 'the motherload'? (is it all that I need, or are
> > there other associated files that go WITH this file....required before
> > restoration can happen?
>
>
> My guess is that there some kind of index file as well that has to jive
> with the pim.vol (which would explain why it alone didn't work.)
**** I think you are right....although I've read posts where people followed
the same instructions that "I" did and reported uncantly SUCCESS..so, I guess
it will have to go down in history as a mystery.....

> I'd also guess that deleting PIM data resets this file, so you're likely already too
> late, unless you can open the pim.vo
> , say, with a hex editor and convert/extract the info manually (good luck!)
>
>
> > I'm an I.T. person by profession so this is extremely frustrating;
>
> And, as an IT person, how many times have you told others to "backup, backup,
> backup!"? (Just kidding- we've all been there!)
*****VERRRRY FUNNY WISE-GUY.....yes, been there done that -- knew better-
and had never lost anything with a phone -- so, I guess it didnt
'register'....
Now that I've BEEN THERE DONE THAT with my phone, I'll never go there again
and currently have 2 backups (on two separate computers).... *-D
>
> > however,
> > a phone expert I'm not! Your step by step direction would be GREATLY
> > appreciated....
>
>
> If only I had one! AFAIK, the pim.vol format is proprietary.
>
> 400k sounds relatively small. I currently am up to 600 contacts (and down
> to about 4 dozen calendar items) and my pim.vol is 2.77MB. 400kb sounds
> familiar- perhaps that's the size of a "blank" pim.vol?

****Oh Geez, "THAT'd" explain a LOT ---
This would be good if someone (a PIM.VOL file expert) could confirm this
suspicion -- for all those poor souls of the future -- that might be working
through the night (thinking that the 400K held content) --- trying to salvage
it... As I attempted...8-/

IN CLOSE, I ended up taking an old phone (2 phones ago) --- to the Sprint
store and had them use their tool to push contents .....as a starting
point.... (of course, I lost a ton of new ones that I'd added since -- but,
it's better than zero contacts).
Now, I'm using Outlook to update the phone book and will keep this baby
synchronized!!! Thanks for your helpful and comical feedback. Chris
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