Partial restore of iTunes backup - i.e. just contacts and messages

[rikesh]

Is it possible to partially restore an iTunes backup of iPhone?

Just contacts and messages would be ideal.

I know within the backup folder of each iPhone, the file 31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442.mddata corresponds to contacts, and 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata is for messages.

So could I just delete all the other files and then click restore from backup in iTunes?

Many thanks

EDIT: Ok I tried it and iTunes won't restore from the backup (unknown error -32). So I have all the unwanted backup files in the recycle bin and only the two above mentioned files in the backup folder. Any suggestions?

 

[Applejuiced]

It's not as simple as you thought.
You can't pick and choose what parts of the backup you want.
Most likelly your backup data is corrupt now.

 

[rikesh]

It's not corrupt, it's just missing most of the data (which I could have easily restored from recycle bin)

Instead I decided to set up as new iPhone and sync contacts from Windows Address Book. I can live without the old messages.

Case closed - unless anyone comes up with a way of selectively restoring from an iTunes backup.