Microsoft begins restoring Sidekick data

T-Mobile Sidekick LX

(Credit: CNET)

Microsoft has begun the process of restoring data to Sidekick owners who have been without it since a massive outage began at the beginning of the month, the software giant said Tuesday.

In a statement, Microsoft said it has posted a tool to T-Mobile's Web site that allows Sidekick owners to restore their address book.

Although it initially feared that much data might be lost, Microsoft said last week that it expected to be able to recover most, if not all, of the information. However, the company also said that the process of bringing back the data will go beyond this week.

Here is the full statement:

The Danger/Microsoft team continues to work around the clock and has completed its latest round of rigorous tests. We are now ready to make the first phase of the content restoration process available to you, starting with personal contacts.

This data restoration effort is only necessary for the minority of customers who lost data from their Sidekick devices.

Beginning today, log into the My T-Mobile website, where there will be a recovery tool to restore contacts you may have lost during the recent service outage. This tool will enable you to view the contacts you had on your device as of October 1. With a few clicks and a confirmation, you will be able to restore these contacts to your Sidekick. If you have recreated some of the same contacts on your Sidekick since October 1, you can choose to keep both sets of contacts, merge them, or just keep the set of contacts now on your device. You may also edit any partial or complete duplicates on your Sidekick after restoration.

We continue to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to restore your data. We're making solid progress on the next phase in this restoration process, including your photographs, notes, to-do lists, marketplace data and high scores.

We appreciate your ongoing patience.

[B-Ri]

Where are all the comments about how horrible MS is? All the outrage that spewed forth when it was a negative headline against MS. Well let me be the first here to say nice work Microsoft. As a tech support person I completely understand how these situations go. Catastrophe occurs and panicked users lash out. What is surprising is how all the relatively tech savvy people that read and comment on CNET immediately pass judgement on companies when there is a headline. Yes companies make mistakes and boy this one was a doozy but there was no leeway given to them to see if they could recover anything, which now we find that they can, but apparently no one who bashed them is willing to say anything positive. I guess that is the way of things now, twitter has given us this low attention span and quickfire responses to things that often require time to work through. Data recovery is a long and thankless job, MS is doing the right thing here and the guys in the trenches making this happen should be applauded.

[cb3431]

Very true.

[Vegaman_Dan]

It's much more fun to poke at a company when something under their name fails than it is to admit they are stepping in and making things right.

Besides, the problem was traced to a Sun system running BSD, not a Microsoft product at all. That puts a damper on people who come here to complain about how horrible MSFT is and how superior *nix products are.

[mpitogo]

Dood where the heck are you. mars? Giving Microsoft a pat on the back and saying nice work for giving users pain for the last few weeks, its like me taking my car into an auto repair shop to change my tires only to find out they crashed my car and I will be out without a car for a few weeks but wait, we'll fix it for you for free... and I say "oh gee thank you very much auto repair man"

The nice work should have been to protect the data at every level.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@mpitogo

You're right, the data should have been protected at every level, but it wasn't. Danger, not Microsoft, was in charge of this operation. Microsoft bought them out along with the existing infrastructure. Now you can't make huge drastic changes to an in place operation immediately. It takes time to determine what needs to happen and how.

It was a pre-existing condition that they are now addressing. You can't do everything in a day.

[jaguar717]

As the late Bill McNeal once said, "Rome wasn't burnt in a day!"

I wonder if you guys would've bashed Ford for Jaguars with electrical problems a year after they took over. It took time to fix Jag, and obviously getting all the Sidekick's infrastructure up to spec isn't an instantaneous process.

[baconstang]

Two weeks later everybody's got new friends and contacts anyway.
Problem wasn't MS software, it was MS (mis)management.

[baconstang]

Instantaneous? 18 months is hardly instantaneous.

[Tech Diva XXX]

Here's one for you.

They did say the data was gone for good, now they say they can recover it. I don't know what to believe from them concerning this subject anymore!! And I'm very glad I never got a Sidekick, they screwed everyone over as far as I'm concerned. I'd be livid at being unable to use my data for over 2 weeks(it's been at least that if not more), then hearing it was all gone, just to get on another rollercoaster that says they can get it back. I feel jerked around and I don't even own a Sidekick. I feel sorry for those who do. You truly got shafted by utter incompetence and now inconsistencies.

I will likely not use their other upcoming cloud service unless absolutely necessary because I don't trust them with data after this. They'll have to prove otherwise.

But I will likely be getting Windows 7 so I don't hate MSFT entirely, it's just this particular incident that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[B-Ri]

@Tech Diva, I believe it was T-mobile that initially said that it was all likely gone for good. I don't think MS ever said anything like that. It was a horrible mistake but this has nothing to do with their other cloud initiatives. Besides, a wise man once said your data doesn't truly exist until it exists in two places. The takeaway from this mess should be to ensure that you control your own backups. You are right you should never trust someone else with keeping the sole copy of any information that is important to you. If it's important to you wouldn't you want to ensure it's safe?

@mpitogo I am not giving MS a pat on the back and saying good job. I was just saying that they deserve credit for doing the right thing by doing whatever it takes to get the data back. Remember there are like 800000 people affected, that kind of data recovery is never going to be quick.

[chrisx1]

They originally announced the data was likely lost forever.
It was more than just a little mistake that they didn't have a good backup of the data available in case the hardware upgrade didn't go as planned.
It's great that they were able to find a way to recover data from the drives, but they should have never been in that situation of having no backups of the data.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Danger defintely pooched it on this one. MSFT is coming in and fixing the issue, but things like this take time to do properly. No quick fixes.

[Tech Diva XXX]

+1

[ghostofitpast]

Hey, Ina, did you know that when I clicked from Google Reader to see this article, your page was intercepted by a full-page Blackberry ad?

[Tech Diva XXX]

This whole site is plagued by intrusive ads, at least if you use IE. I really wish they'd reconsider how they deliver ads on this site! I get interrupted constantly, I'm thinking of using ad block scripts on Firefox for this site.

[ncmacasl-y]

this does NOT work for everyone!! see comments section here: http://bit.ly/tgDYJ or see my results here: http://twitgoo.com/4fdl2 #sidekick

Many are getting only partial restores or (like in my case) nothing at all!!!

[Vegaman_Dan]

I do believe the article addresses this, that data is being restored slowly, not all at first, but give it time and it should populate once it's back online.

[SpeedPsycho]

Data is almost always recoverable, short of physical destruction of the hard drives. The question is, how much are they willing to pay to get it all?

[Mergatroid Mania]

This is what you get for trusting your data storage to someone else. If these people had of backed up their data on their own computers instead of using some cyberspace storage/backup solution there never would have been any problems.

My data is backed up on my computer, my work computer, a cellphone and a USB flash drive. Awesome backup, I will NEVER loose any data under ANY circumstances. But, keep trusting your storage needs to someone else and see where it gets you.

[Tech Diva XXX]

Once again, Sidekick apparently didn't offer this option. People who keep saying this seem to forget that.

[deepen05]

wait what does microsoft have to with this? what do they have to do with sidekicks? i thought t-mobile makes the sidekick?

[baconstang]

T-Mobile provides the wireless for the Sidekick. The cloud data services are provided by Danger. Danger was bought by MS 18 months ago. Here's a closer look. http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/10/15/microsofts-pinkdanger-backup-problem-blamed-on-roz-ho/

[ComeToTerms]

THERES REALLY NOT MUCH TO SAY HERE... DANGER AND MICROSOFT. DAMN GUYS. ITS 800,000 SIDEKICKS IN THE COUNTRY. TO DELETE EVERYONES CONTACTS, THEIR NOTES, THEIR EVERYTHING, THIS ISN'T GOOD AT ALL. BUT THEN AGAIN ITS DEFINITELY GOOD FOR SIDEKICK USERS THAT HAD THEIR PHONEBOOK CONTACTS IN OTHER PLACES LIKE GMAIL OR OUTLOOK OR SIM CARDS OR WHERE EVER ELSE.

I WAS ALREADY DISSAPOINTED WITH THE 2009 SIDEKICK LX BUT IN MY OPINION, IT HAS THE BEST DESIGN AND BEST KEYBOARD OF ANY PHONE ON THE MARKET TODAY. IT NEEDS TO BE REVAMPED HEAVILY!!!
WI-FI, FLASH PLAYER, 8.0 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA WITH A TOUCH SCREEN AND WINDOWS 6.5. REDEEM YOURSELF! THIS PRODUCT IS TOO DAMN POPULAR! NEW NAME THE SMARTKICK!!!
YEAH YOU JUST F'D UP. OK. YOUR TRYING TO FIX THE PROBLEM. GIVING EVERYONE BACK THEIR CONTACTS IS A GREAT START. BUT HOW WILL YOU KEEP YOUR BUYERS. REVAMP IT! PUT A COMPETITIVE PRICE ON IT! OR JUST MAKE THIS THE LAST ONE YOU PUT OUT. AND TO THINK, THIS HAPPENS WEEKS BEFORE THE RELEASE OF THE MOTOROLA CLIQ ON TMOBILE. WITH TMOBILE ALLOWING PEOPLE TO START OVER THEIR CONTRACT BECAUSE OF THE SIDEKICK ISSUE (MEANING THEY GET THE CLIQ FOR $199 ON A NEW 2YR CONTACT, EVEN IF THEY JUST RECENTLY PURCHASED A SIDEKICK UNDER THE 2YR CONTRACT DEAL) AND ON TOP OF THAT, YOU GET $100 FOR YOUR TROUBLES, $35 OFF FOR THIS MONTHS INTERNET PLAN, TMOBILE IS ALSO GIVING FREE SHIPPING AND THE CHOICE TO PAY IN A 4 MOHTH PAYMENT INSTALLMENTS, WHAT WILL STOP EVERY SIDEKICK USER FROM SWITCHING OVER TO ANDROID. YOU CAN EASILY SELL YOUR SIDEKICK FOR $100-$150 TO SOME HIGH SCHOOL KID THAT NEVER HAD ONE SO YOU HAVE A GRAND TOTAL OF $235-$285. THIS EQUALS A FREE MOTOROLA CLIQ. UNLESS THEY WANT TO GO HARDER AND TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO CAPTURE THE OVERPRICED HTC TOUCH PRO2 FOR $350 (SELLING FOR $150 ON VERIZON). AND EVEN IF THEY DON'T TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GET A NEW PHONE, THEY COULD ALWAYS SWITCH CARRIERS. AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF, WE WILL ALL HAVE TO WAIT AND LOOK IN THE MAIL FOR THE CLASS ACTION CASE AGAINST TMOBILE IN THE FUTURE. THERE ARE SEVERAL LAWSUITS OUT THERE ALREADY DUE TO THIS PROBLEM AND ALL OF US SIDEKICKERS WILL GET A PIECE OF THE PIE. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE OUTCOME. AS FOR ME, IM GOING ANDROID CLIQ! ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE.

[dredlew]

Um, I think there's an issue with your CAPS-lock. You should get this taken care of... like, asap.

[HyraxX]

Microsoft may have lost the data on purpose. Google is banking on cloud computing and what better way than to mislead the people into thinking the cloud is unsafe.