[DebsMK]

This morning I was offered a software update for my Torch. The screen showed a message from Orange telling me that I would not be charged for this update so I initiated the install via wi-fi. The phone has been stuck on data restore at 26% for around 4 hours now! Can anyone help? What shall I do?

[kbz1960]

Leave it alone. I've seen people say OTA can take several hours.

[Ben1232]

A friends took 5 hours from Rogers OTA.

Let it finish.

[DebsMK]

It's still at the same point, still 'Restoring my Data' at 26% and it's been doing that for around 10 - 11 hours! Don't think it's going anywhere

[kbz1960]

Do you have a backup?

[DebsMK]

Stupidly no, but I think I have an old one from around 6 months ago.

[kbz1960]

That is an awfully long time. Either you can wait awhile yet or if you don't want to wait and perhaps lose some things you will have reload the OS by downloading and installing on your computer and run loader.

[DebsMK]

Yes I may wait a while longer and then do that - thank you! I guess I shouldn't accept software updates when I'm half asleep and haven't thought about the consequences of not backing up

[kbz1960]

Yes all computers. We all never think about backing up until after its too late. Been lazy myself on it before and lost things. I'm not sure if your stuff is saved on the sd card or internal memory and possibility of getting the info yet or not. I'll PM Pete or someone that might know.

Hold tight.

[Pete6]

Did your phone wake up overnight? I hope so.

If it did, was all your stuff restored?

If it was not, then the fact must be faced that you now may not recover all of your precious personal data. I am sorry about that.

Right, with the bad news out of the way, and assuming the phone did not wake up last night, there are still things we can do. These are divided into two sections.

1). Fix the phone

2). Try to get some of your data back.

Fixing the phone should be fairly simple. It goes like this.
- download an OS for your phone from BlackBerry - BlackBerry Desktop and Device Software Download Sites - United States and install it on your PC.
- install Desktop Manager (DM) on your PC from here https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads...93E4F3BB068C22
- Connect your phone to your PC and run DM.
- We should now be able to install the correct OS on your phone and have it work again albeit with none of your data.

If the above sounds a bit daunting, we can help and explain how to do any of the neccessary steps. We do this quite often and it works reliably.

Once the phone is working, we'll restore the Backup that you have and then we'll set about #2.

Many people despair when they lose they personal data but the truth is that most of it is still around in other places. Obviously it's nice when all your contacts are in a contact file - duh. However I'll bet that you have 90% of them either in the old backup file that yo do have and on bits of paper, with friends, hidden in emails, at work, can ask the people again or phone their companies. It is a bit of a detective game but it can be surprisingly effective.

If you use Outlook or Gmail or many of the other email providers, then do you have a Contact list there? If you use Outlook then we can re-sync your phone with that. Online email providers all have the ability to sync with a BlackBerry one way or another. So, all is not lost. You should get most of your Contacts back if you look hard enough.

SMS texts are probably gone for good starting from when your last backup happened. There is not much to be done about that I am afraid.

Emails too are probably a lost cause if you use Oulook but if you are on Gmail, Hotmail or tohers then they'll probably sync back to your phone too.

The Calendar is a bit of a problem for events after the backup date. Of course, some will be in your head, others may be on Gmail or other email calendars. Again it requires a little bit of detective work.

Please come back here and I'll do what I can to help but I do have a few other thing that need doing this Sunday. Otheres here will help too.

[DebsMK]

Thank you so much for all your help. The phone did not wake up over night so I thought 'nothing ventured nothing gained' and did a battery pull. After the boot sequence it carried on updating where it left off. It looks as if everything is working fine now and all my data seems to be there. It must've been a reminder for me to make sure I back up, I've got into a habit of doing this on the PC but not with the phone. I'm off to to back up now! Many thanks again.

[Pete6]

Wow! That's great. I am so glad.

If this little episode makes you a bit paranoid about Backups, then that is a good thing.

Rule one of IT work is "Make a Backup." Rule two, "Make another one.".