BlackBerry Application Loader Sucks!

Wasted half a day upgrading a BlackBerry 8330 to BlackBerry Device Software v4.5. The upgrade process requires IE so an ActiveX control can be installed to get the BlackBerry Application Loader that also requires Java. App Loader claimed it made a backup of contacts, apps, et al. but it failed to restore any contacts after being stuck for two hours on the upgrade task that was supposed to "take up to 30 minutes". To add insult to injury, the App Loader log implied it had deleted the backup it made after it installed the 4.5 update! Spent the evening scanning for deleted files to no avail. Moral of the story: Make a manual backup before using App Loader.