i did add unzip and zip the the n800 and unzipped the files. when i unzipped them into the same backup folder the files were unzipped into a /media/mmc1/backups/backup/root/--/-- folder and then into a /.--- (notice the ".") folder so the 'import' facilities for each program could not find them. the calendar was the important file and it seems to have survived its scare with eradication. plus i was able to merge the contacts from the 770 so i'm only missing a few of them. anything else i can live without until i figure out how to get the remainder of the information out of the backup files. the trick of overwriting the corrupted metadata file with an uncorrupted though false one from another backup worked to some extent. maybe i'll figure out a similar trick to extract other info.

john