getting MemSafe to work on a Palm Vx

[JGE]

I'm still using a Palm Vx. I gave up on Desktop/Hotsync support a long time ago; I just use a MemSafe for backup (it's a little flash-memory based device that plugs into the connector on the Vx). I have a new Vx I bought off eBay, and I'd like to restore the contents of my MemSafe to it. But it doesn't have the app. So I need to do a one-time HotSync that installs the app (it puts it into flash memory on the Vx).

Any thoughts about how to do this ? I have the install CD for Palm Desktop. I guess I just need to get ahold of a Windows machine that's equally ancient (I believe it has to be 32-bit machine running nothing newer than Windows Vista or XP. If I could find one, it'd probably be cheap :-)

Any other suggestions (besides joining the 21st Century and using my smartphone for this stuff) ?

[Heinz Stege]

Is your old Palm Vx still working? And is the MemSafe program
installed on the old Palm Vx? If the answer is yes for both questions,
then you could try to beam the MemSafe program by IR from one Palm Vx
to the other.

Alternativly you could look for an old(!) cellphone with IR support
and a SD-Card. Copy the MemSafe program to the SD-Card by any PC, and
beam the File from the phone to the Palm Vx by IR. (This works for my
old Nokia 3110c [and an even older Palm IIIc].)

Cheers, Heinz

[JGE]

Yes and yes. That's a great idea, Heinz, thanks, I will try it soon (with old and new Vx).

I had no idea you could beam from cellphone to Palm - that's crazy.

[JGE]

> Is your old Palm Vx still working? And is the MemSafe program
> installed on the old Palm Vx? If the answer is yes for both questions,
> then you could try to beam the MemSafe program by IR from one Palm Vx
> to the other.

Arggh ... well I tried this. It beamed M'Safe app to the new Vx, and it seemed to accept it, and appeared to put it into the "Unfiled" category of app, since it went to that screen (in the app menu). But there's nothing listed there, or when I select "All" apps. If I try to re-beam it though. it says MemFlashDB.ipro is already there (asks do I want to replace it ?) So evidently something got beamed onto the new Vx, but I'm not able to access it at all.

If I look at the old Vx (that already has M'Safe), I see there are actually two versions of M'Safe. I believe one is the "regular" app, and one is one they came out with later than gets installed onto the flash memory in the Palm (so that if you have to do a hard reset, there's still a version of M'Safe there that you can use to restore from a MemSafe device). I'm not sure which is which. But the other one is "locked", and it won't allow me to beam it at all.

So I'm kinda stuck. I need to figure out some way to be able to access the one I was able to beam over, or how to beam over the locked one. I do also have access to the M'Safe apps (on my computer and the disk that came with the device), so maybe I have to go the route of the cellphone with IR capability. Might be easier to find an old PC though.

I don't know if you have any other ideas, but thanks for the suggestion anyhow, Heinz.

[Heinz Stege]

On Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:59:01 -0700 (PDT), JGE wrote:
>
>> Is your old Palm Vx still working? And is the MemSafe program
>> installed on the old Palm Vx? If the answer is yes for both questions,
>> then you could try to beam the MemSafe program by IR from one Palm Vx
>> to the other.
>
>Arggh ... well I tried this. It beamed M'Safe app to the new Vx, and it seemed to accept it, and appeared to put it into the "Unfiled" category of app, since it went to that screen (in the app menu). But there's nothing listed there, or when I select "All" apps. If I try to re-beam it though. it says MemFlashDB.ipro is already there (asks do I want to replace it ?) So evidently something got beamed onto the new Vx, but I'm not able to access it at all.
>

Too bad. And yes, you are right, you beamed something to the new Vx,
but it is not the application (i.e. the "resource-" or "prc-file").

>If I look at the old Vx (that already has M'Safe), I see there are actually two versions of M'Safe. I believe one is the "regular" app, and one is one they came out with later than gets installed onto the flash memory in the Palm (so that if you have to do a hard reset, there's still a version of M'Safe there that you can use to restore from a MemSafe device). I'm not sure which is which. But the other one is "locked", and it won't allow me to beam it at all.
>

I found a MemorySafe manual (PDF from Nov. 2000) from Northstar mobile
on my harddisk. It describes a "normal" installation of the software
by HotSync or by "beaming the MemorySafe application from another Palm
handheld" (cit.). The manual explicit states, that you have to
re-install the MemorySafe application in case of a hard reset.

So I wonder, if you used a 3rd-party application to move the
MemorySafe application from RAM into the flash memory. E.g.
"JackFlash" is a well-known software for this. Do you still have this
software installed on your old Vx? It may be capable to move or copy
the M'Safe back into the RAM.

Unfortunately the original beaming tool of the Palm does not allow, to
beam a file from the flash. It shows a lock icon next to the
application name. Other beam tools, e.g. FileZ or RsrcEdit, do beam
from the flash memory. Do you have another beaming tool on your old
Vx?

>So I'm kinda stuck. I need to figure out some way to be able to access the one I was able to beam over, or how to beam over the locked one. I do also have access to the M'Safe apps (on my computer and the disk that came with the device), so maybe I have to go the route of the cellphone with IR capability. Might be easier to find an old PC though.
>
>I don't know if you have any other ideas, but thanks for the suggestion anyhow, Heinz.

I guess the file you could beam to the new Vx is not the application.
So, if I'm right, there will be 3 options now:
a) Try to copy the M'Safe application from flash to RAM on the old Vx.
Then the beam function of the Palm should work.
b) Look for another beam application already installed on the old Vx.
If there ist one, this has to be beamed to the new Vx first.
c) Find a way to copy the application from the PC to the new Vx.

However, when this task is completed, the application still is not
stored within the flash memory. It should work for backups, but the
MemorySafe application will have to be re-installed in case of a hard
reset.

HTH, Heinz

[JGE]

I'm pretty sure the flash version of the MemSafe software was something that Northstar added later than the first release of their product; IOW, I did not use any third-party thing. I guess what happened was the flash version superceded the non-flash version. And I guess that's why I can't beam it (as you say). No, I don't have another beaming tool installed.

Ah well, hopefully it's going to be moot, as a friend seems to have an old Windows laptop that should be able to have the Palm Desktop installed on it. So I can do that, then install the MemSafe stuff, and be good to go.

I really appreciate your helping with this - thanks !