On the opening screen you can really just press the BACKUP softkey and be on your way. But let's take a look at the options available in the program.
Pressing the MENU softkey gives you a few options. You can select RESTORE, BACKUP OPTIONS or BACKUP ADVANCED OPTIONS.
The options screen will allow you to select what to back up, a naming convention for the backup file, and whether to compress and encrypt the backup file.
The advanced options screen gives you choices to allow Sprite Backup to automatically manage the backup files. So it can restrict the number of backup files kept on the storage card and/or how much space they take up on the card. And you can change the port that Sprite Backup uses to talk to the desktop agent.
So what happens when you click the BACKUP soft key? The software does some initial tasks like closing all running applications, then it creates a single file backup of the entire phone. It stores that file on the MMC or SD card you have put in the phone. It does not back up the storage card itself. Only the phone's information is backed up. The backup process length varies on how much stuff you have on your phone, but shouldn't take more than 2 - 4 minutes. When it finishes the screen tells you it is done. And that's it! It just can not be any easier.So you now have a backup. Great. But what good is it? Well this is where Sprite Backup shines. Lets assume your phone has crashed, forcing you to do a hard reset. Go to your desktop system and establish a GUEST partnership. Then reinstall Sprite Backup. Take the phone out of the cradle and press the PROGRAMS softkey. Then select Sprite Backup. Once the software is running press the MENU softkey and select RESTORE.
You are given options to select the backup file location (PC or Storage card) and the actual backup file. You can choose to restore the entire phone, or individually select personal or system data. And a very important option is to clean the phone before restore. Basically setting the phone back to hard reset settings. Personally I have had issues when I didn't select the option to clean the phone.
When you kick the restore off the software gives you a warning to turn on Airplane Mode to disable the radio. Do it.When the restore completes you get a confirmation message. Although not required, it is recommended that you power cycle the phone. When the phone comes back on it will be EXACTLY like it was before it crashed. All your applications still work, contacts are intact, and even that custom home screen is there greeting you.We all know ANY Windows platform can and will eventually crash. Why not protect yourself from these time consuming problems? For the very reasonable price of $29.95 you can have the peace of mind that I have been enjoying for several months now.