Wiping Everything Away (Hard Reset)

For some reason I was unable to sync my BlackJack with my laptop when I got home today from work. ActiveSync kept crashing and I could not figure out what the problem was. I turned my BlackJack on and off, I turned my laptop on and off, I reinstalled ActiveSync (I even tried ActiveSync 2.5 beta) - nothing worked - ActiveSync kept crashing anytime I plugged the phone into the USB cable. So I decided that it must be the phone that was causing the problem and I would have to give it a hard reset (wipes out everything - basically it reloads the ROM to reset the OS back to the way it was when you purchased the phone).

Since I backup most things, and because I knew that the data in my Outlook was pretty much up-to-date, having to reset everything on my phone was not too much of an inconvenience.

Here is the process I went though:

• I did a hard reset. The Samsung SGH-i607 manual tells you one way to do it (Press the Up Navigation Key and the Power button) but I couldn't get it to work. I am sure there is something stupid I am missing, but that is ok because there is another way of doing it. On your phone, under Settings, Security, More..., there is the option "Reset". This will wipe out everything on your phone and put the phone back into the state it was when you walked out of the Cingular store with your new BlackJack.
• Once the phone comes back up I do a little check and make sure that I can connect to the Internet. Usually I go to MEdia Net and Google to make sure things are fine. If the Internet does not work fix it now by making sure all your parameters are correct under Settings/Connections (you can get all the correct settings from the Cingular web site's support area).
• This is probably a good time to sync up your BlackJack with all the data that is in Outlook. Once this is done all your contacts, appointments, and tasks should be back on your BlackJack.
• Time to copy all your backed-up applications (freeware, demos, bought apps, games, etc) and configurations back to your phone. Using ActiveSync, go to "Tools/Explore Smartphone" to bring up your "My Documents" directory on your BlackJack. (see my post, Accessing Files on Your BlackJack for additional information).
  
• Copy all you IE Favorites to \Windows\Favorites
• Copy any customized Home screens to \Application Data\Home
• Next it is time to install all the applications I just copied over. Here are the ones I install:
• appunlock - A freeware program that allows you to install uncertified software.
• Papyrus - A replacement for the default Calendar and Task applications that come with your BlackJack. Papyrus is the same as Pocket Informant for Smartphone (simply rebranded). Currently this is the only application I have bought for my BlackJack. I ran a demo version of Pocket Informant for a little while when I first got my phone and thought it was great so I bought it (I bought the Papyrus version simply because they published their upgrade policy on their web site).
• Vieka WordPad - A free customizable WordPad for Smartphones. There is no real way to edit files on your phone without something like this, so this WordPad is great.
• Smoresoft Sudoku - Everyone needs some extra games on their phone. I like Sudoku, and I really like this free game. Unlike other software you install on your BlackJack, this one is nice enough to not put the shortcut in the root Start Menu, but rather in the Games folder.
• PHM Registry Editor - A great free registry editor that you will need if you want to make any registry tweaks.
• Windows Live Search - From Microsoft (and free), Windows Live Search for mobile application gives you fast access to local search and maps, driving directions, and even local traffic information. Pick the Mobile Phone version not the J2EE.
• GMail and Google Maps - Now this is a tricky one. The Java on the BlackJack has some issues. The issues are documented and much has been said about it. One of the solutions is to use IBM's JVM along with some modified GMail and Google Maps JADs. A person who goes by the tag jaust has put together everything you need in one ZIP file including instructions.

I did not mention it above, but when you are installing the above applications you may see some messages such as "The program you are installing may not display properly because it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software.". These messages are fine so simply click OK to continue.

Those are most of the steps I do to recreate my system. What I have not mentioned includes:

• Setting the Home screen to the one I copied over.
• Loading you OPML file into the RSS Reader (see my post Default RSS Reader for details).
• Customizing you Start Menu (see my post Removing Default Programs for details).
• Setting all the settings such as ring tones and such.
• Deleting all the CAB files in the My Documents directory that I used to install all the applications. This is not a necessary step, but why waste the space when I already have them backed-up on my laptop.
  

Well, that is pretty much it. It took a little longer this time to recover simply because I documented the process here. Now I have a written copy of the steps, and hopefully others can use them as well (making changes to the instructions to match their specific cases).