The answer is simple. I wrote the article on my Pilot. When I finished the article I started syncing and got a fatal error. After I hit the reset button, the welcome screen started flashing. I tried several soft resets and warm resets, but in the end I had to do a hard reset.
Poof! All of my applications and data gone. What now? Luckily I perform regular backups and could easily restore almost everything installed. Only the article and a stray setting or two are gone for good.
I decided to take this opportunity to talk about reset options and protecting your data.
Palm units provide three types of resets: soft resets, warm resets, and hard resets.
A soft reset relaunches the Palm OS. It is analagous to rebooting your desktop system. Many times your Palm will tell you when to soft reset by popping up a message box with a reset button. You can always manually perform a soft reset by inserting a paper clip or a reset pin in the hole on the back of your unit labelled "RESET." A soft reset almost always fixes freezes and other system problems.
A warm reset relaunches the Palm OS without activating any system extensions like OS patches or hacks. This option is analagous to starting a Mac with the shift key pressed. To perform a warm reset, press the up arrow while inserting a paper clip or reset pin into the reset hole. You shouldn't use a warm reset unless you have already tried a soft reset and are still experiencing problems.
A hard reset completely clears the memory of your unit. Only applications and data stored in Flash will be unaffected. To perform a hard reset, hold the power button down while inserting a paper clip or reset pin into the reset hole. You will be asked to confirm by pressing the up button. A hard reset should only be used after everything else has failed.
Although they are rare, hard resets do happen. They can be catastrophic unless you take steps to protect your data.
The first time you sync after a hard reset the data stored in the built-in applications will be restored as well as any files in your backup directory. In order to ensure minimal data loss, hotsync often. This data is only as current as the last time you backed it up.
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