Data transfer gone horribly wrong...

[fz1dave]

Been awhile since I've been here but I know this is the place to come for the best iPhone advice on the net. You still out there Europa? iPwarrior? Napoleon?

My wife just got her 4s and the task was to transfer her 3gs settings and data to the new phone.

Downloaded the latest version of iTunes on her mac.
Downloaded ios5 to her 3gs and then got the "backing up" message in iTunes. (I don't know for sure what the previous version was. She last updated about 4 months ago if that helps)

After about 10 minutes the screen on her mac went black and the screen on the 3gs was a pale greenish color. Nothing happened for another 10 minutes so I unplugged the 3gs.

Now, upon plugging it back in, I have the dreaded USB/iTunes screen going on. Tried holding both the home and power buttons for 10 seconds until the Apple appeared, released the buttons, but instead of popping out of recovery, it goes right back to the USB/iTunes screen.

Am I screwed? I really don't want to do a restore and lose everything on the 3gs. I've read a bit on some of the "recovery assistance" downloads but will any of them get me anywhere?

 

[acosmichippo]

I would just try pluging your 4S in and setting it up from the backup. It may work just fine.

If that doesn't work, then you might have problems.

 

[fz1dave]

Yeah that is a thought, and I would love for you to be right.

Even if that latest backup failed, wouldn't there still be data from the previous one she did a few days ago? I would think I could just restore the 4s from that and be good to go. That's probably what I'll end up doing though it won't be until later tonight. She took the 4s to work today, as would have I.

 

[acosmichippo]

Not necessarily. Backups are modified, not created new. So I'm sure there is a backup there, but the question is if it's not corrupted from whatever happened.

 

[fz1dave]

Ah... gotcha. Well I guess there's only one way to find out. Can I do any harm in trying?

 

[acosmichippo]

nah. you can always restore as new.

 

[fz1dave]

Well she plugged in the 4s and was able to get just about everything except a few contacts and a couple apps. Apparently there is no need to update to the latest OS so I will not be doing that when my 4s arrives.