Hard Reset, Data Protection & Privacy Tips Upgrading To The New Treo 680 From a Treo 650

Like me, a great many Treonauts will shortly upgrade their trusted and beloved Treo 650 (it really has served me extremely well) to the new Treo 680.

Some people will choose to give their ‘old’ Treo 650 away to a friend or family member, keep it in a drawer as a ‘backup’ should the need for a spare Treo ever arise in the future or simply sell it on ebay, Craigslist or on a personal basis.

Until recently in pretty much all of the above scenarios I would have recommended that Treonauts perform a “hard reset” to protect their personal data before their smartphone changes hands thinking that this would effectively ‘wipe’ all their data clean.  However, I have since learned that this isn’t quite enough to keep a dedicated hacker from stealing your data…

According to a recent Washington Post article “It turns out that hackers or sleuths armed with commercially available software can fairly easily resurrect erased data on cellphones, including address books and calendar contacts, photos, videos and e-mails, turning used phones into a treasure trove for identity thieves and allowing them in effect to buy personal data off the Internet, security experts say”.

Thankfully I learned that Palm is one of the few companies to have developed a process that not only erases (via a hard reset) but also overwrites the data with 1’s and 0’s in a process called “zero-out” which does effectively wipe your old smartphone completely clean from any personal data that may still have been there after a hard reset.

Specifically and _only_ for the Treo 650 Palm offers instructions for a Zero Out Reset which “will regress a device that has non-volatile memory to its factory-fresh state. When done correctly, it completely rewrites your device's internal memory with zeros and ones, ensuring that any data is expunged. It should be used only if you want all information completely obliterated (eg: you're selling your handheld, or you're sending it in for repair, and want to protect your privacy).”

Performing a Zero Out Reset has been purposely made difficult by Palm in order to ensure that “it would not happen by accident”.  The step-by-step instructions are below (please note that you should HotSync your Treo with your PC before performing any reset):

1. Connect your device to its HotSync cable or cradle. The HotSync cable does not need to be connected to your PC, and it does not need to be connected to power.
2. Press and hold the Power button and UP on the 5-way navigator.
3. While continuing to hold Power and UP, press and hold the HotSync button on the HotSync cable or cradle. As you press HotSync, make sure your other finger doesn't slide to LEFT or RIGHT on the 5-way navigator; it needs to be exactly on UP during the entire process. Although you are pressing the HotSync button, a HotSync operation should not begin.
4. While continuing to hold Power, UP and HotSync, press and release the RESET button on the back panel of your device. This is very difficult to do with only one person; you may wish to hold the stylus in your mouth and use your hands to press Power, UP and HotSync.
5. Release Power, UP and HotSync.
6. If you did this reset correctly, the screen of your device will go blank, and you will not be able to turn it on. The charging LED will not light up, even if it's connected to power. It will appear to be "dead." (any other activity — such as the Palm OS logo or a rainbow-colored Boot Log screen appearing — means the reset was performed incorrectly; try again)
7. Your device will appear "dead" for several minutes (up to 10 minutes). During this time, your device's internal memory is being reformatted. If your device doesn't appear "dead" for several minutes with the screen completely blank, the zero out reset was performed incorrectly; try again.
8. After several minutes, your device will "wake up" and the Palm and Palm Powered logos will appear as if you had performed a hard reset. Eventually, you'll be taken to a series of screens to calibrate the touchscreen and set date & time.

If you want your handheld to remain in factory state, stop here. If you want to restore data to your device, follow the steps for recovering data after a hard reset.

Besides the Zero Out Reset method above there is also another significantly simpler Factory Reset process (also works with the Treo 700p) which will similarly wipe out your Treo clean.  To steps to perform a Factory Reset on your Treo 650 are:

[Note: If you've already set a password on your smartphone, any hard reset will automatically become a Factory Reset. With this method below, you'll enter a password and then perform a hard reset.]

1. On your smartphone, launch the Security application.
2. If the Password box says "Unassigned," tap the box and create a password for your smartphone.
3. Once the password has been set, disconnect your smartphone from the AC charger and take off the battery cover. Do not remove the battery yet.
4. Hold down Power/End .
5. While holding down Power/End button, remove the battery. Then insert it again.
6. While still holding Power/End button, the screen will show the palmOne or Palm logo and a progress bar. Then the circular Palm Powered logo will appear. Release the power button when you see the Palm Powered logo. 
7. A message will appear warning that you are about to erase all the data stored on your smartphone. Press UP.
8. You'll see a series of Palm logo screens, then a prompt to tap onscreen targets. The Factory Reset is complete.

Considering the real concerns about identity theft as well as the increasing facility with which unscrupulous people may have access to data left on an old Treo smartphone thanks to readily available commercial software I think that the relative hassle of performing a Zero Out or Factory Reset will be clearly offset by the peace of mind that you will have in return.

Used Cellphones Hold Trove of Secrets That Can Be Hard to Erase [WashingtonPost.com]

Treonauts learn something new every day…