stereodb, hard resetting basically erases everything on the phone and resets it back to the factory settings... you don't need to remove the sim card when you hard reset, it will not do anything to it... all the contacts on the phone will be erased but it will not touch the sim card's contacts. you don't really need to reload any programs to run the phone but in my case i usually install task manager to kill tasks running in the background.. you will need to re-input your connection settings for AT&T, for internet and messaging... the only way to back up the phone is if you use this program called SPRITE BACKUP, a review of this software was done by slacker which can be found here
http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/modules.ph...owcontent&id=38
the PHM registry editor is a free software and can be downloaded here
http://www.phm.lu/Products/Smartphone/RegEdit/
just download it and copy the cab file to anywhere on your phone and then run it and it will install...
just take one step at a time and you will get there =) if you have anymore questions just ask. goodluck and have fun.
kingteal, we all once started out a newbie not knowing what was what but we eventually learned through trial and error. so please try not to post these comments that will not benefit to the community...