For more information about activating a Blackberry Storm on Alltel, read this post detailing how to activate the Storm step by step. This guide for fixing EVDO is adapted from Labphoto’s comments on my original post.

1. Locate and install a copy of QPST 2.7 Build 301.

2. Open Blackberry Desktop Manager 4.7

3. Open QPST. You will need to add the COM4 and COM5 ports. Once this is done, you should see a connection on either COM4 or COM5 with your storm.

4. In QPST, start the client service programming.

5. Click the button to read the phone’s contents.

6. Click on the “PPP Config” tab.

7. Open the “AN” tab.

8. Locate the password field and fill it in with the ESN number of your phone. You can get this from the main QPST screen. Make sure to capitalize all characters.

9. Click the button to write to the phone. The phone will reboot and once the signal comes online, you should have full 1XEV signal.

One last thing, if you are not comfortable doing these changes with QPST, THEN DO NOT DO THEM. You can screw up the phone.

I decided the other day that the 120 GB hard drive in my MacBook Pro just wasn’t cutting it any more and purchased a new 500GB Samsung drive from Newegg. I run Leopard on my primary partition with Windows XP on a 30 GB BootCamp partition, so I couldn’t rely solely on Time Machine for my full machine backup and restore. So, here is how I transfered my files over to the new hard drive relatively painlessly.

1. Perform one final backup of Leopard to my external drive using Time Machine.
2. Replace the hard drive in my MBP with the shiny, new 500 GB drive.
3. Restore my Leopard partition using the Time Machine backup and the Leopard OS disc.
4. Plug the old drive into my spare Windows machine using standard SATA cables.
5. Copy the entire Windows partition (including hidden and system files) to an external hard drive.
6. Upon completion of restoring Leopard, setup a new BootCamp partition and install Windows XP.
7. Boot into Leopard, delete all files from the BootCamp partition, and empty the trash.
8. Copy all files from the external hard drive to the BootCamp partition.

This worked for me. Now I am back up and running with plenty of space to spare!

Well, I ordered a Blackberry Storm on eBay on Friday in hopes of being able to activate the phone on the Alltel network (the Storm has only been released on Verizon in the United States). This might seem unnecessary with the Verizon/Alltel purchase deal looming, but I prefer my Alltel plan to the Verizon plans available, especially with the My Circle feature.

Now let’s just hope Verizon hasn’t locked down the programming menu of the phone too badly and I will be able to program in the Alltel network id and update the phone’s PRL to pick up Alltel’s towers. I will update this post with my progress in the coming days.

UPDATE (12/29/08):

My BlackBerry Storm is officially working on Alltel except for issues with EVDO (1x works fine). I will do my best to detail the steps I took to make the phone work:

1. Enter the NAM programming menu by typing ##000000 SEND from the phone screen.
   • Mobile Directory Number (MDN) should be your 10-digit number
   • Home SID (check your current Alltel phone programming menu for this number)
   • BlackBerry Registration Id should be 144 for Alltel. To change this setting, press the BlackBerry menu button and choose “Edit BB Reg Id”
   • SIP User ID should be <your mobile number>@bb.alltel.net
   • SIP Password should be “alltel”
   • MIP User ID should be <your mobile number>@bb.alltel.net
   • Push the BlackBerry menu button and choose “Save”
2. Now that your phone is programmed, you need to have the MEID hex added to Alltel’s system. You cannot use the web-based tool since this is a smart phone. Call Alltel from a different phone and have them add your phone to the system. You can check your MEID hex by typing #4357* SEND.
3. You will also need a SmartChoice plan with the BlackBerry option added to your account.
4. Dial *22801 to enter the Alltel OTA programming system and choose the option to activate your phone.
5. After the phone is activated, dial *22801 again and choose the option to update your phone’s roaming service. This will update the PRL on the phone to Alltel’s latest version, overwriting the Verizon PRL.
6. To provision the data services on the phone, go to options…advanced options…host routing table, press the BlackBerry menu key, and choose “Register Now”. This should replace your Verizon HRT entries with Alltel entries and you will receive a message from BlackBerry stating that the handheld has been registered with the wireless network.

UPDATE (3/3/09) - Issues with EVDO have been solved by some members of the Crackberry forum. Read this step by step guide on fixing EVDO.