PAC Mate: Protecting your Information

By Brian J. Walker

This article discusses PAC Mate information and settings, and how to protect them. If you do not take precautions, you can lose information and settings when you reset your PAC Mate.

The PAC Mate can be reset in two ways.

Warm Reset:

A warm reset is some times required after installing a new program or device. If the PAC Mate is behaving sluggishly, or is not responsive, a warm reset often corrects the problem.

Information is not lost when you warm reset the PAC Mate. If you change settings using the Settings command, S Chord or INSERT+S, those settings revert to the defaults in the Settings dialogs. Go to Start, Settings and make your changes in the appropriate dialogs if you want them to be permanent.

To Warm reset:

PAC Mate BNS -: Press Dots 1-2-3-4-6-7-8 Chord.
PAC Mate TNS -: Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

Hard Reset:

A hard reset is sometimes necessary if your PAC Mate completely locks up and is totally non-responsive. A hard reset returns your PAC Mate to the condition it was in when you received it. Any files on the PAC Mate, All added programs and device drivers, all settings, all Contacts, E-mails, and Appointments are lost.

To hard reset your PAC Mate, press the recessed button on the bottom of the unit.

A hard reset should seldom be required. But it may be necessary eventually. So it is important to know how to protect your information.

There are several ways to protect PAC Mate information.

ActiveSync Synchronization

ActiveSync is used to synchronize your PAC Mate and your PC. If you keep your PAC Mate synchronized, there is always a recent copy of a lot of information on your PC. E-mail, Contacts, Calendar appointments, and even files can be synchronized.

If you have to hard reset your PAC Mate, when you reconnect to your PC, anything you had synchronized can be restored to your PAC Mate. You might lose a few recent changes - anything changed or added since the last time you synchronized.

The Files option in ActiveSync is not selected by default. If you select it, you can synchronize a folder on your PC with the My Documents folder on your PAC Mate. Since My Documents is the default folder for saving files created in PAC Mate programs, it is a good idea to synchronize files.

You cannot synchronize PAC Mate settings

ActiveSync Installed Programs

When you install a new program to your PAC Mate, you usually must install it on your PC so ActiveSync can install it to your PAC Mate. Once you install it on your PC, it is added to the ActiveSync list of installed programs. If you hard reset your PAC Mate, you do not need to reinstall added programs on your PC, but you must reinstall them to the PAC Mate.

To reinstall programs:

Open ActiveSync on your PC.
Connect your PAC Mate. (If Synchronization is set to start automatically, wait for it to complete.)
Select Tools, Add/Remove Programs.
Locate the program you want to install in the list.
Press SPACEBAR to select the program.
TAB to Ok and press SPACEBAR.

ActiveSync will install the selected program. You may be prompted for information or to make choices on your PAC Mate.

ActiveSync Backup utility

Use the ActiveSync backup utility to back up all information on your PAC Mate, including settings. I do not do this every day, but I do back up everything once a week. The backup utility is under the Tools menu in the ActiveSync application. You can also select to perform an incremental backup, which only backs up files that have changed since your last backup. There is also an option to automatically back up information when you synchronize. I strongly recommend you explore this utility and use it.

Internal Flash

The PAC Mate provides internal "flash" storage space. Much of this space is used for the PAC Mate image file. The image file is what restores the PAC Mate to its default state when you hard reset it. Basically, everything is copied from flash to RAM and everything is run in RAM. Most files, settings, and other information are stored in RAM by default.

There are about 8 megabytes of space available in internal flash for your use. Files saved to internal flash are not lost when you hard reset the PAC Mate. It is a good idea to save important files that you need to access regularly to internal flash. They are readily available, and are protected.

Internal Flash is accessed from within the My Device level of File Explorer. It is listed as "Internal Flash Removable Storage."

Compact Flash

Using Compact Flash lets you add virtually limitless storage space to the PAC Mate. Compact Flash cards are now available in sizes ranging up to several gigabytes. You can open files directly from Compact Flash, play sound files stored on a CF card, and even install programs to Compact Flash.

Most of the memory on the PAC Mate is RAM. You store information and run programs in RAM. The more information you store in RAM, the less memory is available to run programs. Moving information to Compact Flash frees up memory, and may even make your PAC Mate more responsive.

Since files can be saved to , and opened from Compact Flash, a Compact Flash card is a good investment to enhance your PAC Mate. It is certainly a good idea to save important information to a Compact Flash card. I store most of my files on two Compact Flash cards. I have demonstration files, the HTML version of the PAC Mate manual, and several books on one CF card, and audio files and other books on another.

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