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With a slew of entrepreneurs and consumers turning to BlackBerry for their smartphone needs, we’ve asked whether personal BlackBerry users need a hosted BES. The answer, as always, is sometimes. If you are among those who use a hosted BES, you might be wondering how you can swap out your old BlackBerry for a new model, like the Storm or the tardy Bold. Thankfully, the solution is simple. For starters, you’ll need BlackBerry Desktop Manager software. From there, it’s a cinch.

Once you launch the desktop manager, connect your new BlackBerry. You’ll be prompted for your email username and password. Enter that, and desktop manager will ask if you want to switch to this new device. You could hit No here, but Yes seems like the better option.

See? I said it was easy. If you have a newer version of Desktop Manager, all of your information should be switched over to the new device. This includes the past five days of email.

As always, it’s best to backup your old BlackBerry before undergoing this process. Computers crash and computers screw up. You don’t want a simple machine error to erase months or even years of personal data.

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