Oops! Microsoft Loses All Sidekick Users' Data
Should we really have to remind Microsoft to make a backup if the data you're trying to protect is important or you know, not yours? No, we shouldn't. Tut, tut, tut.
Sidekick owners experienced a service outage last weekend. Given that the Sidekick does practically everything over the cloud, that means users couldn't access stuff like their calendars, photos, contacts or email. Buh-ummer, right? Well, it gets worse. WAY worse. Microsoft and T-Mobile have notified users that that "outage" might be permanent.
A "server failure" at Danger, the Microsoft-owned subsidiary that makes the Sidekick, has wiped out all user data. Anything stored on the server is gone with the wind. Microsoft said that Sidekick owners who haven't switched off their device can probably salvage what's stored locally but other than that, the likelihood that the company will be able to recover the data is "extremely low."
So what happened? Well, the bunny ears around the aforementioned server failure are there for a reason. At the moment, there's a rumor doing the rounds that Danger didn't backup user data before a SAN (Storage Area Network) upgrade. The company had Hitachi in to do the job for them and for some reason, no one at Danger backed anything up before Hitachi did the deed. Hiptop3 cites several sources who say something went wrong during the upgrade, everything was lost and there was no working backup to save the day.
Any Sidekick owners in the house and willing to share their tragic story? Let us know how your weekend panned out in the comments below.

So what happens now? Are all sidekick phones dead, or is it just a clean slate?
Hah, did you catch that little pun there, danger, and the company's name is Danger! Hahaha.... wait, WTF!?!?! Why would you name your company Danger? After this fiasco, sounds like someone is already making plans to change that little ditty.
They are so careless.
This likely won't happen will it?
Where the hell is Adam Smith??
Makes you wonder just how much of a role MS is playing in this or if they did anything to insure that this type of failure never happens. If cloud computing does not when favor with the consumer, then we are back to using the same old office apps...the very apps the MS dominates the market share.
Did the hard drive get smashed into smithereens by terrorists?
If true and data wasnt backed up before upgrade then nothing "went wrong" during the upgrade.
What went "wrong" was Danger's idiot IT admins who didnt plan a backup before Hitachi showed up. Even if contracted to have Hitachi back it up you are still taking too big a risk and being naive about it.
Correction, "class action lawsuit". Could be a big one. Some lawyer out there is already drafting the suit documents...