Sooner or later, it's bound to happen. Either by choice or by necessity, you're going to get a new cell phone. And when you do, you might be told that you can't move your pictures, wallpapers and ringtones from their home on the old phone to their new digs on the new one.

iStockPhoto/Werner Stoffberg

That's what my provider, which shall remain nameless (It's got a new name anyway.), told me. "Address book only," they said. "Just copy it to the SIM chip and you're good to go."

Not quite, but that's a story for another time.

It's not that I was attached to the pictures and ringtones on my old phone, but I had paid for them. And I do like them. I have certain ringtones for certain people, and they just fit.

I didn't think any more about it until I needed to get a couple photos off of my new phone. (It's not really new. Just new to me.) For some reason that my provider and I have yet to determine, I can't send them via e-mail or multimedia message.

The next logical option would be to use a Bluetooth connection. I'm sure that would have been fine, except that my computer, ancient in tech time, doesn't have Bluetooth built in. Nahla (a nearly four-year-old iBook) is Bluetooth capable, but I haven't purchased an adapter. Never needed one until now.

Because the photos I question were for work, I needed to get at them quickly. I didn't have time to go buy an adapter, and I really couldn't see explaining to my boss that my phone was holding said photos hostage.

I had to come up with something else.

That something else was DataPilot by Susteen, Inc.

DataPilot is a program that allows you to back up your phone to your computer via USB cable. You can also go the other direction and write information from your computer to your phone.

There are versions for both Mac (yay) and PC, although the Mac version is a bit more expensive. If you already have a USB cable, the software is available for download or on a CD. There's also a "universal" kit, as well as individual kits, which contain everything you need, including cables, for pretty much every phone.

After checking the list of supported phones to be sure my Motorola RAZR was there, I decided to give it a shot. USB cable in hand, I opted for the downloadable Mac version.

It took a few minutes, but the software was very easy to use.

Just connect the phone to the computer and click Phone Settings to get the two talking. From there, it's just a matter or reading and writing the data. A couple of clicks later, I had sprung my photos from their RAZR prison. It took about 10 minutes.

That's when I got to thinking about the abandoned ringtones on my old Motorola V220.

Catherine Holland

DataPilot can be used for up to eight handsets. Click image for a larger picture.

I popped the SIM in, connected the cable, told DataPilot to detect the phone, and lo and behold, I was able to download the tones to Nahla.

I reconnected the RAZR and tried to copy them over, but kept running into a connection error. Over and over and over. It turns out that if you set up DataPilot to work with more than one phone, it doesn't automatically detect when you switch.

Once I selected the RAZR, it was a piece of cake.

Now I have a little library on my computer -- my ringtones, photos, and, of course, my contacts, which can be edited right in the program. I could copy movies, too, if my phone captured video.

Now if my phone ever crashes, I'm covered. I'll be able restore everything with just a USB cable and a few mouse clicks. If you've ever had to re-enter contacts into your phone, you know that having a backup could come in very handy.

DataPilot can also backup and sync your calendar, but I use Apple's iSync for that.

In addition, there's a dial-up feature that lets you use your cell phone as a wireless modem. That means you can go online anywhere, any time.

It might come as a shock, but the PC version of DataPilot is a bit more robust than its Mac counterpart, offering a ringtone composer, an image editor and an SMS Manager.

If you don't need everything DataPilot has to offer, you might consider the individual Pix 'n Tunes or DataConnect programs. Available for PC only, they're exactly what they sound like.

It's not uncommon these days for phones to come with their own software for syncing with desktop or laptop computers. The kicker is that that software is usually proprietary to a specific manufacturer and sometimes carrier.

Catherine Holland

Thanks to DataPilot I now have a little library of photos and ringtones, as well as a backup of my address phone. Click image for a larger picture.

The nice thing about DataPilot is that it's compatible with phones from most manufacturers and carriers. You'll want to check the phone support list, but chances are DataPilot will be able to work with your phone in some manner.

Designed for personal use only, DataPilot can be used for up to eight different handsets.

While the software is fairly straightforward with some basic help built in, the site's online support features are less than stellar.

When I ran into the connection problem, for example, I went online for help. The support section was under construction. (Those pages have since gone live.) There was, however, an e-mail form with a note promising an answer within one business day. I filled out the form and received notification that my message had been forwarded to the live support staff. I never received an actual answer.

I tried the 800 number provided in the confirmation e-mail (a nice touch), but the office is only open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PST. There's an option to leave a message for technical support, but by then I had figured out the problem.

Bottom line: DataPilot did what I needed when I needed, and it was easy to use. Can't ask for much more than that.

DataPilot is $35 for the PC, and $45 for the Mac. Pix 'n Tunes and DataConnect are $20 each.

The kits, which include various cables, run a bit more, ranging from $60 to $80.