T-Mobile Sidekick owners - beware! Read Now!

[GomJabbar]

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device -- such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos -- that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low.

We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost.

http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/?category.id=Sidekick

So much for *cloud* computing.
Microsoft, nice show!

[GomJabbar]

This computing calamity allows Sidekick owners only a faint hope of backing up the information currently on their devices, and none of recovering anything they'd trusted to online storage. And it leaves T-Mobile and the operator of the Sidekick's data service, a Microsoft subsidiary formerly known as Danger, Inc. -- oh, the irony! -- with some serious explaining to do.

This isn't the first time a Web service has crashed and left its users without access to data stored "in the cloud," as Web-services evangelists like to describe their approach. Earlier this summer, users of Google's Web-hosted e-mail, calendar and documents applications were shut out of their data for part of a day.

But it is one of the few times a cloud-computing vendor didn't have any backups -- even though the Sidekick's design leaves users without any easy way to copy their data to their own computers, and even though Microsoft and Danger should have known to run a new backup cycle when a bout of service glitches set in the week before Sidekick users' data vanished down the bit bucket. It's one thing for a distracted, inexperienced person at home to forget to back up data until it's too late; it's another for a company with the resources of Microsoft to make the same mistake.

This oversight has observers stunned, infuriated or both.

Cloud computing ought to survive this disaster -- especially among vendors smart enough to document how their users can take their data with them, as Google has begun to do.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/faster ... _data.html

[mgo]

[quote="GomJabbarSo much for *cloud* computing. :roll[/quote]

I spent half a day fooling around with "Live Mesh" from Microsoft today, and gave up in frustration. "Live MESS" would be a better name. The "cloud" a risky idea!

I have always relied on good old direct hard drive connections for backups, and although some items can be put in the "cloud", that's just for convenience, not critical backups.

My cell phone seems to have some sort of really crummy backup setup, but one needs to jump thru hoops and pay extra for some dubious software. Heck with that.

ALL cell phones -ought- to have a simple data transfer capability, like my camera has- so we users can protect our data!

I predict an ugly death of T-Mobile over this horror.

Want a good off-site backup? Copy your data to an encrypted USB drive and keep it in the car trunk. Refresh it every week.

[GomJabbar]

T-Mobile is giving Sidekick owners one month free of data service for the inconvenience. IMO, this falls far short of what should be done. In addition to the free month of data service, I think T-Mobile should give Sidekick users the software and hardware (if needed) to be able to back up the Sidekick to a PC. How will Sidekick owners have any confidence in their device otherwise?

FTR, I am not a Sidekick user, but one of my daughters is. She is currently on her 3rd or 4th Sidekick. Fortunately she has not lost "everything" (yet anyway), but she did lose some e-mails.

[GomJabbar]

Update...
How to Restore Your Sidekick Contacts

-------------------------

This week, on October 20, T-Mobile announced the availability of users' restored contact data dating back to October 1. It provided subscribers with instructions on how to restore their data, merge the restored contacts with their information they currently had, or to just ignore the restored data and continue using the contact information currently on their devices.

In addition to contact data, the announcement also said, "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."
----------------
While the recovery effort is being delayed and complicated by the lack of an external backup, Microsoft is still remaining quiet about the cause of the incident. After AppleInsider first reported that insiders were blaming the failure on either an aggressive and poorly orchestrated upgrade or possibly even deliberate sabotage by a disgruntled employee, CNET "Eye on Microsoft" reporter Mary Jo Foley stated "I’ve also heard that foul play has not been ruled out because the failure was so catastrophic and seemingly deliberate. Microsoft is supposedly continuing to do a full investigation."

Whether the incident was the result of an accident or a malicious attack, Microsoft has learned an important lesson that eventually hits everyone in the world of computing: never work without a backup. In last week's apology to Sidekick users, Ho wrote, "we have made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of our database backups is maintained."

Sun, Oracle save Microsoft's Pink after Danger data disaster

-------------------------

Microsoft says it is still working "around the clock" and is making solid progress on the next phase of the restoration process, which will include photos, notes, to-do lists, marketplace data and high scores. In the meantime, at least you can get your contacts back -- plus T-Mobile is offering a free month of data service (for the $20 plan) and a $100 T-Mobile gift card.

Microsoft releases Sidekick recovery tool for contacts

-------------------------

Apple, Palm and others offer centralized backup for their mobile devices, too. But the data also stays on the device and, cleverly, backs up routinely to a customer-controlled device (typically a desktop machine). When thinking about the totality of data such devices collectively house, that very fragmented approach most likely preserves the overwhelming majority of the data. And if a customer’s laptop fries, the mobile phone manufacturer or carrier is unlikely to be blamed.

T-Mobile wanted instead to focus on making the process ultra-convenient and easy for customers. Curious if the customers whose data was lost for a week would agree that the convenience had been worth it? We are, too.

T-Mobile Learns Its Mobile Data Storage Lesson

-------------------------

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer characterized the recent Sidekick data loss episode as “not good,” and said he believes all the data will be recovered, but added that Microsoft will have to be more forthcoming in explaining to enterprise customers why a similar situation won’t occur with Microsoft’s online services.

“It is something we are going to have to address and explain to customers our method and process and quality approach and what went wrong in that case and how we are making sure that it does not happen again,” Ballmer told Network World during an exclusive interview at the SharePoint Conference.

Ballmer: Sidekick outage 'not good'