stuck on the "too many pattern attempts" screen

I searched the forum and found a fix that involved taking a call and pushing back to get to the home screen, but it won't work. I push back and it takes me to the slide to unlock screen which goes back to telling me to sign into my google account. Apparently they got rid of that fix with 2.1. All I can find is do a hard reset. Now I really don't want to do that because I don't have my phone backed up at all and I don't want to lose all my stuff. What should I do?

 

Will they fix it or just replace it?

 

Would this work? I do have USB debugging on.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/35977-forgot-unlock-pattern-help.html

I want to try it but I'm not sure where to get adb

 

It's a known glitch where you enter your info but it tells you it's wrong

 

Thanks, but I really don't want to lose all my stuff... I'm installing the SDK right now to try the debugging tool. Are text messages stored on the phone or the SD card?

 

Just tried adb and it gave me the message "failed to copy 'data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db' to 'settings.db': Permission denied"
Where do you think I can go for help with this?

 

Alright I'll head to the verizon store now. Can they fix it without resetting it or anything else that would cause data loss? Thanks