Microsoft recovers 'most, if not all' Sidekick customer data

Steve Ballmer must have busted out his secret stash of magic dust, as Microsoft has just come out with the announcement that it has recovered "most, if not all, customer data" that was lost during the recent Sidekick debacle. Following the wildly embarassing fiasco attributed to a "system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up," T-Mobile and Redmond have "rebuilt the system component by component" and now promise to restore data to affected users in the most expedient fashion possible. Guess that means you won't be getting $100 from T-Mobile for losing your Tetris high scores after all.

[Thanks, Abe G.]

[CMC Posted Oct 15th 2009 7:31AM]

Wow, so it only took MS a couple of weeks and all the bad PR to finally pull it together. Nice. And these are the guys who are pushing Office Online and all the other cloud computing.

I'm not a sidekick user, but am very happy for the all of them out there. I have a strong feeling that the platform will either be totally revamped or simply killed off completely after this event. I mean, really, how much time, energy, and money will MS invest into this platform when they're all ga-ga with WinMo??

[Omagus Posted Oct 15th 2009 9:56AM]

I'm thinking Microsoft may look at it like Sidekick OS:Windows Mobile :: Prepaid:Postpaid.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 15th 2009 12:24PM]

@CMC I'm not sticking up for the parties involved by any means but I think you have a skewed sense of time. How did 5 days turn in to a couple of weeks? http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-we-probably-lost-all-your-sidekick-data/

[CMC Posted Oct 15th 2009 1:28PM]

I'm not a SK user, so I could be wrong here, but I thought that the outage was about 2 weeks before TMO admitted that the data was gone? If that's not the case, I proudly stand corrected. But the saga goes back weeks since the original data outage.

I just really question MS' commitment to Danger, particularly with letting something like this happen under their watch. I know they didn't design any of the Danger platform, but at the end of the day, they do own and manage the company.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 16th 2009 5:10PM]

The outage started October 8th, and it's still not completely resolved for everyone, but the data restore is nearing completion. So yes, it was almost 2 weeks this thursday. They've finally fessed up to what exactly happened only on the 15th. Having most if not all data restored is a far cry from their previous announcement of: "We've likely lost all of your data." That's why most folks have been so perturbed with the situation, to say the least. I have no idea why they would have given up so easy. Maybe because everyone from Danger left or was laid off? Here's to better backup strategies ALL over the place. Including in your house! Reminder: BACKUP YOUR DATA NOW!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 15th 2009 1:34PM]

I have a sidekick and find this shocking... I still do not have my data back and my sidekick is slowly hemorrhaging the contacts that I have put back on my phone.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 15th 2009 5:42PM]

My phone lost its data on oct 2nd , so it was more than 5 days and sure Tmobile or who ever is taking the rap didn't really come forth till later. After I already try to restart the phone myself and then being told not to let the phone lose power? My phone even turned off on its own a few times I'm guessing because ? Hard to but the data that I did have on it was erased again. So its hard to say really. All I know is I called Tmobile and they said should be done in a few days. Then I see the news online how its still down. I just hope they can get the data back and comp us for the trouble.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 17th 2009 3:08PM]

Who besides teenaged girls and Hollywood tartlets owns a Sidekick?