Turns out our source had it right: Microsoft engineers who worked on the Danger/Sidekick meltdown have been able to recover “most if not all” of the data that was lost during last weekend’s catastrophic server failure.
In a statement, Roz Ho, Corporate VP of Premium Mobile Experiences addresses the unfortunate T-Mobile Sidekick customers and apologizes for the massive fail:
On behalf of Microsoft, I want to apologize for the recent problems with the Sidekick service and give you an update on the steps we have taken to resolve these problems.
We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage. We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible.
She adds that there’s now a belief that only a minority of Sidekick users were affected by the outage, but did not share exact numbers. She refers customers who believe they’ve been affected to the T-Mobile Sidekick forum for more updates about when data restoration will commence, and any steps they may need to take on their side. Microsoft says it will work with T-Mobile to post the next update on data restoration timing no later than Saturday.
And about the actual failure, which turns out not to be sabotage after all as we assumed:
We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up. We rebuilt the system component by component, recovering data along the way. This careful process has taken a significant amount of time, but was necessary to preserve the integrity of the data.
Microsoft states it has made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of their DB is maintained.
It’s still a giant fuck-up, but at least the users (well, most) will get their data back. But the whole debacle has reflected very poorly on all companies involved, and it will linger for long.
Good news for sidekick users.
> “He adds that there’s now a belief …”
I think she’s female
Correct, thx, fixed.
So they still can’t guarantee all data will be recovered. If I was affected by this I would be understandably upset.
so you guys jumped the gun.. made some erroneous assumptions and basically went on fun assumptions instead of actual facts…
look. the fact was/is, you don’t like the msoft/sidekick so you jumped at what appeared to be a major screwup (as did others…)
in the future, you might want to hold off a few days, or at least really get your facts, or perhaps insert into your articles some sort of statement saying that this is pure speculation on our part as to the root cause of an issue…
peace…
If MS/T-M/Danger say themselves that they probably lost all data, and there isn’t much chance of recovery I think it’s fair to ‘kill them’. I mean they said themselves that they screwed up.
If a major accident happens with a plane, you are not going to wait a week to see how it pans out! You are going to give opinions and live coverage etc.
Great that microsoft recovered, but a week downtime on a paid service is too much!
M$ sucks – switch to Apple. They would never lose all your data, and if they did they would certainly get it all back … Oh, wait…
http://news.cne...373064-260.html
I wonder how do the number of persons affected compare in the two cases? How many Sno Leopard users lost their data versus how many T-mobile users lost theirs?
Considering that it sounds like not many T-Mobile users will lose data, I suspect that the Snow Leopard numbers may end up being larger. And the type of data loss is much larger for the Snow Leopard issue. Which reminds me… let me back up this computer right now!
how is the apple incident even relevant here? they’re both major fuck-ups, but one has nothing to do with the other. may as well compare it to like when a company accidentally reveals customer credit card data. but on every ms or apple article, there’s no compelling need to mention the other company.
(and seriously, the M$ thing really needs to stop. grow up. they’re a company in it to make $. they’re not a charity, a la the red cross. or rather, red cro$$)
Well, this whole behavior is a general cloud computing problem they all face. Also if you as a company trust to much in your support contract with your storage vendor, this this will happen again.
Having an offsite backup of your data doesn’t solve the downtime you will suffer to recover such a huge database like this.
When it comes down to cloud based services, I personally trust Google the most. At least they built there storage system with commonly used hardware themselves and don’t rely on a big storage vendor.
Wow! I cannot imagine such a large company especially Microsoft doesn’t have better disaster recovery steps in place. I mean don’t they sell solutions to prevent these type of things happening in businesses all over the world?
You would think they would have several fail safe systems in place to prevent such an outage. I would imagine a couple engineers responsible for the failed servers are looking on the CrunchBoard for Jobs.
“But the whole debacle has reflected very poorly on all companies involved, and it will linger for long.”
Linger on for whom. I asked a few people at work yesterday and no one seemed to know anything about this event.
I doubt many people where you work use Sickkicks, considering the device is for teens.
it’s ok.. just techcrunch’s never ending attempt to keep bringing down ms and promote google.
“We rebuilt the system component by component, recovering data along the way. This careful process has taken a significant amount of time, but was necessary to preserve the integrity of the data.”
Why does this sound like a bunch of BS?
Having put together machines in the past, I don’t think I have EVER heard of rebuilding a system to recover data…. What the hell is she talking about?!?!?!
Right, they’re following all your bits.
“We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up.
I call shenanigans! Perhaps MS should hire some real backup consultants to explain to them how this is supposed to work.
they didn’t name the company ‘danger’ for nothing, me thinks. therefore, sidekickers shouldn’t act so surprised now…
…aaawwwwhhh, not even sarcasm works for this little mishap. MS asleep at the wheel, just when they were getting some positive pr for Bing.
NOTE to Apple: hold the schadenfreude for now — wait for the FCC to get back to you on the G Voice debacle (full disclosur: i own a G1 and G Voice is all you hope it would be — and then some!).
I’m not worried. I’ve always trusted Microsoft. They’ve been always the people company. That’s why we all run windows right?
I wonder if the number of people affected will exceed the reported 250,000+ who had their hard drives wiped by the early versions of Leopard? Now THAT was a data loss that the industry seemed to gloss over and accept.
In comparison Sidekick is no biggie unless you use it and were one of the few affected.
“We rebuilt the system component by component, recovering data along the way. This careful process has taken a significant amount of time, but was necessary to preserve the integrity of the data.”
Dear TechCrunch. Please could you make a policy to not use the f-word in your articles? Is it really too much to ask? Dave
http://www1.wil...htm#smartphones list free services which can save data outside from smartphones