Force restore from backup rather than new phone set up

[potejam]

I just had to restore my phone to fix some nagging problems and when I plugged back into iTunes the only option available was to set up as a new phone. I backed up previous to doing the restore, and several times in the previous couple days so I am positive that the correct backup is on the computer.

I really can't afford to lose so much of my personal info so I tried the whole restore FW process two more times and each time only got the "new phone" option. I have done this countless times on both this phone and another iPhone and have never had the restore from backup option not appear.

Anyone run into this before or have any idea why its happening / suggestions to get around it? So far other searches haven't revealed much other than to delete iTunes_control file (which doesn't seem to exist on my system).

iPhone 3GS 4.2.1
Old bootrom, iPad Baseband
Windows 7 starter

[ihappy]

Are you restoring to the correct fw? If you backed up and are restoring back 4.2.1 then the backup should go through just fine. If you are downgrading from 4.2.1 and your backup was on that fw then chances are its not going to work and you will have to start as a new device.

[potejam]

Yeah it's the exact same custom FW I originally installed, except originally I installed it on Vista with redsn0w 0.9r6 and this time I did it on Windows 7 with redsn0w 0.9.6rc8, which I don't imagine would make a difference. Unfortunalty I don't have the other machine available but I wouldn't expect that to make a difference considering I've backed up several times on this one.

Some settings, such as user defined autocorrections and time zone carried over each time to the "new phone" settings. Obviously there is still data on the phone that is correctly identifying it.

[potejam]

Anyone else have a suggestion? The whole point of a backup is to ensure that vital data is not lost, and iTunes has just made everything I ever backed up obsolete. I can't believe that trusting whether or not iTunes asks me to restore or set up new is the only way to keep my data.

Is there any other way to "manually" restore a backup?

[i.Annie]

If you restored for the sole purpose of fixing problems, you shouldn't be restoring from back up anyway. Chances are, it will just bring back the problem.

[potejam]

True. For some reason I get all sorts of issues with my unlock and I have to restore/jailbreak again for it to work (I move around a lot and use various carriers). The problem goes away with the FW restore and restoring the phone backup doesn't affect it.

Anyway this is the first time that restoring my backup hasn't been an option. I really need to get a workaround since I can't afford to lose all this!

[i.Annie]

Unfortunate there is no sure fire way to do this. Especially with I'm assuming, a firmware difference of iOS 4 and iOS 3. There was a thread somewhere around here about doing this, but it hardly ever worked if at all.

[ihappy]

Probably the only thing you can do is use an iPhone backup extractor to extract all your data and add it to your new backup device. I tried it once and it extracts 99% of your data so there is minimal loss.