Just lost ALL my contacts, any way to get them back?

[emkorial]

I formatted my HDD, and installed my OS again on my computer. I plug my Mogul in, andit tell me I need to delete a profile, and shows two profiles there, Work Computer and Home PC. I don't want either of the old ones, so I delete them both.

I connect up to the computer, and selct files only for sync. I do not have outlook installed on the computer yet. It syncs files, and I unplug.

I bring up my contacts, and they are ALL gone. ALL of them. WTF, I TOLD IT NOT TO SYNC CONTACTS!!!!!

Is there ANY way to recover them? And yes, I got PPCPIMBAckup now and will be using it from now on.

Also, another wierd thing, the connecting came up already pointing to my old sync locaiton, even though I formatted my computer, and used my same old Sync name, which I was hoping would go away and reset. How do I do that?

[scarsofthumper]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I formatted my HDD, and installed my OS again on my computer. I plug my Mogul in, andit tell me I need to delete a profile, and shows two profiles there, Work Computer and Home PC. I don't want either of the old ones, so I delete them both.

I connect up to the computer, and selct files only for sync. I do not have outlook installed on the computer yet. It syncs files, and I unplug.

I bring up my contacts, and they are ALL gone. ALL of them. WTF, I TOLD IT NOT TO SYNC CONTACTS!!!!!

Is there ANY way to recover them? And yes, I got PPCPIMBAckup now and will be using it from now on.

Also, another wierd thing, the connecting came up already pointing to my old sync locaiton, even though I formatted my computer, and used my same old Sync name, which I was hoping would go away and reset. How do I do that?

This is why I have a mail2web account and sync contacts through Exchange.

[Dorenda]

The best way to keep up with your contacts is using mail2web. I had an MDA and now I have a Mogul and I just put in my email address and everything transfers to the phone. Go to www.mail2web.com and create a live email account and you'll never have to worry about losing your contacts again. I hope this helps you...

[walla]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I formatted my HDD, and installed my OS again on my computer. I plug my Mogul in, andit tell me I need to delete a profile, and shows two profiles there, Work Computer and Home PC. I don't want either of the old ones, so I delete them both.

I connect up to the computer, and selct files only for sync. I do not have outlook installed on the computer yet. It syncs files, and I unplug.

I bring up my contacts, and they are ALL gone. ALL of them. WTF, I TOLD IT NOT TO SYNC CONTACTS!!!!!

Is there ANY way to recover them? And yes, I got PPCPIMBAckup now and will be using it from now on.

Also, another wierd thing, the connecting came up already pointing to my old sync locaiton, even though I formatted my computer, and used my same old Sync name, which I was hoping would go away and reset. How do I do that?

To answer your last part, the information is tied to your phone. You would need to change device name to get a different name.

There is no way of going back. Consider it a lesson learned. We all learn the hard way.

How exactly did you reformat your HDD? Did you just install Windows XP over it or delete partition/create partition then install windows xp over it?

[cbunting]

that blows . activesync hiccups every once in a while. I had it blow out all my outlook contacts off my exchange serverone time, luckilly I could pull them off an exchange tape backup from the night before...

[emkorial]

Well, I kinda lucked out, it turns out I never wiped the SIM card on my old phone I had before my mogul, so I was able to recover about 75% of them from that. Still a pain.

I had to import them into outlook, sync them with the phone, clean them up on the phone, then use PPCPimBacku top back them up, delete the commection on my computer, delete outlook, set up a brand new connection to the phone, sync (which wiped out all my contacts again, as I thought it would), then restore from backup. Now I have my contacts on my phone, and they are in no way linked to my computer at all, so there's no losing them through f'in activesync. I tested it out by deleteing the connection and starting a new one again, syncing, and my contacts survived this time.

Thanks goodness for PPCPIimBackup, that's some nice software.

[emkorial]

How exactly did you reformat your HDD? Did you just install Windows XP over it or delete partition/create partition then install windows xp over it?

New HDD.

[pacmantom]

You can also try dashwire to backup your contacts too along with your pictures, sms, videos among other stuff.

[schettj]

there are now about a bazillion ways to get your cal/todo/contacts up in the cloud.

I was using mail2web, tried dashwire, now using the funambol client on the device, and scheduleworld.org in the cloud

http://www.funambol.com/
http://www.scheduleworld.com/

Funambol has a "recover" option, to FORCE one way data sync (device -> cloud or visa versa) - I use an app on the wm device, and an app on the desktop... and scheduleword keeps my google calendar in sync.

Bottom line, get that data out into the cloud somewhere

[b0ris84]

i actually stopped syncing contacts on my phone. If you never sync them it will never delete them. If i need to install a new rom or update pim backup