I've read this entire thread, and have been down that exact horrible path over and over. I think last year I wasted one full work-month on this and trying to make my palm fully sync. Gave up on syncing to home - deleted Act from home computer totally.
I use my 4000 Act names every day, but slowly am migrating over to Outlook - that syncs with my Blackjack in mere seconds.
I'm a devout Act! user from the beginning ver 1.0 all the way to 8.02 - but I'm burnt out with these overbearing re-install, sync, and backup issues. Give me back my 1.0 - it did what I need really well - pulled over to a floppy and migrated to home in a flash.
