Having a rough day here with this problem. Hope someone has some input.
I'm Using a Nextel Blackberry 7520 with OS 4.1.0.380, Microsoft Outlook 200 SR-1 in my desktop computer, and Blackberry Desktop Manager 4.1.0.8 to syncronize my information back and forth.
2 nights ago while synchronizing (and having reached the portion of the synch process where it was doing contacts), I began receiving a message saying that Outlook had a problem and needed to close. I clicked OK and expected it to shut down. It didn't... it then sync'd a few more contacts, and popped up the same message. I clicked OK and it did the same thing. It would sync a few contacts, give me the same error message and I would click OK... Did this for the better part of 20 minutes. It finally finished synch'ing and the desktop manager shut down, and I thought no more ot it. Till today when I went to bring up someone's contact info to dial their phone number, and they were no longer in my contact list. The more I look, the more contacts I'm missing. A quick look in my Outlook shows they're gone from there as well. Looks like I've lost maybe 20-25% of my contact list.
The information will be easy enough to re-enter in either location, though time-consuming, but I'm now concerned about my sync procedure and the possibility of losing info again. Anyone run into this, and a possible fix???

I have seen the error message before (on an earlier version of the desktop manager) but when I'd hit the OK button, it would shut down within a few seconds, I'd restart it, and it would generally go all the way to completion without any additional problems. I did recently upgrade the desktop manager and the phone OS to allow me to doanload and run the Blackberry Maps functions, but haven't seen any other problems than this.

I have not had that happen to me.

Did you loose the same contact data on your handheld?

Have you got the latest software installed on your 7520 and desktop. I have not used a 7520 in a while so I do not know what the latest software is.

I did have a problem long ago with my sync, and after that I make a habbit of always backing up before I do a sync just in case something goes wrong.

I would be interested if it hangs at the same contact each time of different ones!

I have lost the same data in both the Blackberry and the desktop computer. I had never considered backing up the Outlook data, so will have to recreate it all from scratch.
To the best of my knowledge, the software versions at least in the Blackberry and the desktop manager were the latest available.

Alright!
Problem solved after lots of sweat and tears. I printed out every contact list I had in my computer from e-mail rolodex, to old Palm datafiles to homemade Excel lists. Sat down and prepared to re-enter all the missing contacts in my Blackberry, and looked closely at the Blackberry Desktop Manager and ouila... there's a backup/restore function there that I've never noticed before, and I know I've never intentionally performed a backup from there. On a hunch however, I opened the backup/restore function and found the file extensions created by the backup utility. After a quick file search in my computer, I found a backup dated a week ago... before my disastrous synch that went awry! Apparently it automatically created a backup when I recently updated the OS in the Blackberry.
I pulled up and restored the data and nearly wept to find everything was back to where it was supposed to be. I have now performed backup again, with the most curent data
Can ya'll imagine a 350 pound guy jumping for joy and clicking his heels simultaneously?? Ok, maybe that's stretching it, but man, am I tickled!

Backup, backup, backup.

It's great to hear that it all turned out OK. I learned a similar lesson a long time ago.

There is nothing better than a good backup routine & sticking to it

Exactly. If it's important, back it up regardless of where it's stored or what format it's in.