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.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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cookies I don't have a Sidekick...but this is completely unacceptable. For whatever reason, people trust companies with their data, and this situation does quite a bit to undermine that.Reply -
JasonAkkerman There is no excuse for that. I'm sure lost of people lost their jobs because of this.Reply
So what happens now? Are all sidekick phones dead, or is it just a clean slate? -
NoCaDrummer So do we need any other reason to NOT trust Clod Computing. I mean "Cloud" Computing?Reply -
Regulas I guess it must suck for those people who put their faith in Cloud Computing and Microsoft.Reply -
CoryInJapan HAHA wow.That sucks for them I guess.Not making a backup is the biggest mistake they could of made.Reply -
phantastic My brother was a victim of the BS. They gave him a free month of service. What a load of crap. Hitachi arrays are garbage. Should have stuck with EMC arrays.Reply -
cookoy Wow! Putting all your cookies in one jar. One server for all my data. Are they using MS Home Server version 1.0? You should know better! Didn't you read the sign? "Danger!"Reply
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hellwig Oh come on now. That's got to be a few dozen terabytes of data, and they WERE running a RAID 5, so what danger was there to begin with?Reply
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.