Restore backups made under the first ROM revision on the Pocket Loox 720

Author: Menneisyys at the FirstLoox/PPCT/Brighthand/Geekzone/PocketMatrix/PPCMag/CEWindows/PDAGold/PDAMania.hu etc.  forums

Last edited: 12.04.2005 14:56.

 

When the first Pocket Loox 720 ROM upgrade arrived, it wasn't possible to restore backups made with the previous ROM version. I've quickly came up with a hexedit-based solution, and, later, a registry update to completely bring the after-restore device up to date to remedy this. I've described these hacks at the following threads:

 

http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showthread.php?t=3198  

http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showthread.php?t=3213

http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showthread.php?t=3241

http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showthread.php?t=3220

 

I decided to hard reset my 'precious' yesterday because of the misbehaving ThinkOutside StowAway unified keyboard driver 4.2, in order to switch back to version 4.1. Then, I've noticed I only had an unhacked (non-hexedited) ROM file with version V702 on my cards; therefore, as I had no access to any desktop computer so that I could do a quick hexedit hack, I wasn't able to restore it.

 

Then, I remembered it's the Registry that Settings/System/System Information/Version gets its version information from. I thought to myself: 'What would happen if I set it back to 702 (instead of the default, post-upgrade 712) and tried to restore my backup file after this?' Yeah, I was right - restoring worked just fine.

 

What does this mean? Simple: the backup/restore process can be made MUCH easier than described in the threads above. You won't do any hexediting and file transferring - you don't even need a desktop computer (as you can rename files inside Total Commander or Resco File Explorer on the PDA). You only need to set the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Platform\Version to the exact value contained in the backup file, and, then, you'll be able to restore your backup.

 

So, the step-by-step tutorial for all this is as follows.

 

  1. before the ROM upgrade, start FSC Backup. On the Store tab, choose 'Back up the entire system' and uncheck 'Password required' unless you want to store your backup file on a place - for example, your desktop PC - where it could be accessed by hackers. Also, in the 'Storage medium' drop-down menu, choose a card (or the Loox Store) that has enough free space.

 

 

 

 

  1. upgrade your ROM to V712.
  2. download the free Tascal Registry Editor (TRE) from http://pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=92 . The current version, 0.90p, will work great.
  3. extract the files from the ZIP archive, start Setup.exe and install TRE
  4. download the attached v702.zip file and, after renaming it to v702.reg (the HTTP server doesn't support arbitrary file extensions, this is why I had to fool it to think it's an ordinary ZIP file) and copy it to \My Documents on your PDA
  5. start TRE and choose File\Import Registry. In the new window, choose v702.reg
  6. Now, you can restore your previous backup file in FSC Backup (here, click the Restore button). Please note that if the restore process stalls at 100% for more than a few minutes, you can freely reset your device - nothing bad will happen (I've done this several times):

 

 

 

  1. download the attached TREimport.zip file and, after renaming it to TREimport.reg and copy it to \My Documents on your PDA
  2. install and start TRE again and, again, choose File\Import Registry. In the new window, choose TREimport.reg:

 

 

After this, a pop-up window will appear, telling you that the registry import was successful.

 

Now, just reset your device and everything will be up-to-date.

 

 

 

Please note that the first registry import only overwrites the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Platform\Version. You can do the same without any registry import the following way. Again, this is NOT necessary: the first registry import explained above will work OK. I'm only providing this information for people that want to know more about WinCE databases.

 

  1. go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Platform. In the lower pane, you'll see '"Version"="P22452-P929-V712"'.

 

  1. double-click the above-cited value in the lower pane; you'll be taken to the following screen, where you must change the above-mentioned 1 to 0:

 

  1. Press OK; you'll see the following: