Microsoft recovers 'most, if not all' Sidekick customer data
By Vladislav Savov 
posted Oct 15th 2009 4:45AM
posted Oct 15th 2009 4:45AM
[Thanks, Abe G.]
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I'm glad to hear. Hope a lesson was learned.
What lesson? Anything can happen?
It was most likely sabotage, as strange as it sounds. Microsoft had backups too, except they were taken down simultaneously.
MS is full of expert systems managers though. It's all luck I guess.
@Macca
Maybe to keep backups handy at all times, but also to not design a device so that it has to connect to the mothership to access information that should be stored in onboard memory.
If it is sabotage as you say and no a failed backup plan, maybe the lesson learned is to pay better or hire more loyal workers to watch over this type of customer data.
Gross errors were made. The worst error to be made would be to continue like nothing ever happened. If no lessons were learned, that's exactly what will happen genius!
@Macca
There is a stack of lessons that can be load.
1) No single points of failure. There should have been OFF-SITE backups in multiple locations that would have been near impossible to sabotage at the same time.
2) The devices should never have been designed to automatically wipe data in the event that the cloud does not exist and the device has been improperly restarted.
3) One engineer should never have the ability to cause so much data loss. There should have been risk mitigation strategies in place.
4) Be nice to the geeks ;)
@ Nathan
Well done, that was a CompTIA Security+ certified answer!
CaramelZappa,
That's what I wondered about this whole event. Why is all the data on a distant server to begin with? On my WinMo (or Android), my contacts will be safely secured on my computer and a server besides on the phone itself.
@CaramelZappa
Independence Day reference?
@ kjb434
that is just how the system was set up (btw, Microsoft wasn't the one who designed it, they just acquired). There are far better ways in the mainstream now, but when sidekick a remote wipe out abilty wasn't a common task.
Also, something the sidekick did well because it was in the cloud was IM. Your IM conversation could continue in the event you lose reception. When the reception is regained, you IM's come in and the person you're talking to never knows you got disconnected. Every other phone you just get disconnected and until the server realizes you aren't there your incoming messages get lost in cyber space
Translation: "Microsoft came dangerously close to exposing its illegal data-mining operations by restoring their 'private' copy of your Sidekick data. You will be so excited your Sidekick is back that you won't even think about the fact that they must have had an entire server closet full of unauthorized 'backup' copies."
Big brother is watching you, but as long as he tosses you a bone every once in a while, you're cool to look the other way?
I hope they take backups this time!
I'm fairly sure they had backups, but everything was outsourced. Why has no one else made the connection between huge destructive tsunamis and all the data loss in the same couple of days?
Regardless of off-site backups, the tsunamis effed whole regions- I wish they'd just come out and say it.
@NoAndThen: If they actually lost all the data in a Tsunami, don't you think they would have said "Hey, we did everything we could, but what are you gonna do against a freaking Tsunami"? Why would they ever choose blaming it on themselves being stupid rather than letting nature take the fall?
Because the economy they would've got bad mouthed by the public because those are jobs that could've remained in the U.S or UK
i haven't received my data yet so until i get it back im still wanting my $100
Yea, my bookmarks, contacts, and notes are still gone.
The article says "recovered most, not all", so not everyone including
yourself will get your data back. Regardless, class action litigation
is imminent.
then i will be gettin my $100
that "if" that you missed makes the sentence completely different. seems microsoft is pretty confident all sidekick users will have all of their data back in the next couple days.
I'm I'm correct, they still have almost the full 2 weeks left they promised before giving you the $100... so they might find your info in that time, and you will have your high scores, but no $100. Shoulda got a real phone like *insert other phone name here*
Great! When does Apple retreive all that data that the guest accouts ate?
Get some perspective. Microsoft's screw up affected ALL Sidekick owners. Apple's screw up affected a very, very tiny number of users. Remember Snow Leopard has been out of months with millions of users already and only now have we heard of any data loss issues.
@Nathan
And yet T-Mobile and Microsoft seem to have resolved the issue - we'll need to wait and see if customers report data re-appearing before breaking out the flags - and compensated their customers whereas Apple merely seem to be "aware of the issue".
I appreciate there's a difference in scale but I'm pretty sure whose approach I'd be happier with.
It's actually fairly easy to recover from the 10.6 guest login deletion. Anyone who was affected and took their mac into a local Apple Store would most likely have all their data back without having to do much. People with a bit more technical knowledge could recover the data themselves, often with free tools.
Of course you can. Unless Apple low-level formats the disk when you log into the guest account, which would be damn evil.
Actually Apple's bug didn't case data loss, just home folder disassociation which is easily fixable via command line for any well versed Linux user.
@MicrosoftPwnsU
a little obsessed with apple are you ? try not to make it so obvious.
this is a post about microsoft screwing up which has nothing to do with apple but you just cant stop thinking about them can you. I guess they are doing a great job with PR. Do you dream about apple to?
@Mark Anderson
i agree .. the approach i would be happier with is the approach the engineers had and build a system with a defect that affected a small number VS a defect that affected all users. I would gladly take a working product over 100 dollars "im sorry, dont leave me baby" money
@----
Since neither product is working aren't you left with no product at all?
I also remember Apple screwing up MobileMe fiasco.
To call MobileMe a fiasco is being generous.
Just another item in a long list of broken promises and poor fulfillment.
No no no, it was the Time Machine that was screwed up. There's absolutely no way Apple would screw up MobileMe, Time Machine and Snow Leopard.
Sounds like Ballmer cracked the whip. Last thing he needs, is for this to dominate the headlines just before WIndows 7 comes out on the 22nd.
"Steve Ballmer must have busted out his secret stash of magic dust"
It annoys the hell out of me to read this sort of thing. Steve Ballmer is a useless pointy hair like everyone we hear about in the media. The person(s) responsible did w/e it was they did and now have to sit back and watch this weasel take the credit. He may have cracked the whip like you said, but the engineer(s) who fixed it knew they could the whole time. They just didn't want to bother if they didn't have to. "Where's the incentive?" (read Office Space)
It's most likely exactly like Matthew said below. Not only did they put in long hours, not only did they pull off a remarkable feat, they also have to read Engadget praise their figurehead for his accomplishment.
@Invalidd: Welcome to life? The people who organize and set up an action get the credit for said action. The grunts doing the leg work never get mentioned. Honestly they don't really deserve to, they just did what they were told and what they were paid for, whereas Ballmer organized the whole thing under no direction but his own.
@ Mark:
So since JFK said "get to the moon" he should credit, and the folks @ NASA that actually got us there were 'just doing what they were told'...
I didn't realize it was that easy. I'm off to tell someone to cure cancer.
@ invalidd, it's not that easy. If you can gather the brightest medical minds out there, then organize, fund and motivate them to make one of the top medical breakthroughs of the century - curing a widely divergent disease called cancer - then you deserve a whole heap load of recognition for leading the effort. Just tellin' someone to go cure cancer ain't going to cut it. But if you want to try go right ahead... be sure to get back to us on how successful you were with that. ;)
they use sysinternals tools!
i think...
someone must have gotten fired over this data lose
*loss
The rumour going around is that it was sabotage in which case some serious criminal and civil charges (federal ?) would be in order. I know T-Mobile will end up suing Microsoft for gross violation of the SLA. So Microsoft in turn will come down hard on whoever did this.
I still dont have my data.
Did you login under the guest account?
Check Time Machine.
Recovered or not, I'd still be titanically pissed about the whole debacle.
Props to MS, better have a real off-site backup and move it to truely cloud system like Windows Azure.
I want my 100$, i am kidding am kidding i don't own SK :) .
undelete *.* /all
I imagine there are some people who have worked very long hours under a lot of stress to pull this off, those people may not have had anything to do with the original causes behind the data loss.
maybe they found it in the Recycle Bin...
Or someone hit Ctrl. Z and it all got fixed.
either way, good for them.
The data has not been sent back to the subscribers yet -- let's see how successful they really are.
Its not magic dust, its pixie dust. I cultivate it in the moist environment of my armpits and it is harvested by developers, developers DEVELOPERS!
uuuuuhhhhh...
Why do I get the feeling that some data recovery company made a shitload of money?
Data recovery company = NSA. They have all our data.
This announcement is fishy. A few days ago they said all the data was almost certainly gone for good. No company would put out that kind of press release unless they were really really sure. I highly doubt they have recovered anywhere near 'most, if not all' customer data. Most likely what will happen is that some customers, maybe 51%, will get some of their data back (and perhaps not notice some of it is missing), Microsoft will call the problem solved, and the thousands without their data will be largely voiceless because the media would have moved on.
Well, except in this scenario: Company has no idea how much data is still there at all and can't figure it out soon enough for a much needed press release. Company decides to say they probably lost all the data, figuring if they don't then nobody will be any more mad at them than they already are, but if they do manage to get it back then everyone thinks they're heroes and moves on.
Catherine Zeta Jones will get your data back.
All I want to know is: Who screwed the pooch? What happened, and how and why did he do it?
I wanna see his faaaaaaaaaace!
What's a sidekick and why do we care? Like anyone uses one.
Hah except all the apple fanbois get some fodder... NOM NOM NOM I'm so smart I use apple! Nyah!
It is still unfathomable to be me that they don't keep data on the phone in flash memory. Absolutely unbelievable.
im glad i wasn't affected by having my data go away.
still, i wait to pre-order my Moto Cliq, i just wished some how engadget or some one found news about a new Android phone w/ a keyboard and a better processor that would hit T-Mobile (my wish is too much :(
What's a sidekick?
Do people actually still have those ancient things?
Yah because everyone needs a $700 phone. You sir are an elitist snob. And no I don't have a SK. I have a hacked G1 for my personal and a Touch Pro for work. But most people should recognize that not everyone needs a phone that can do everything and costs you a crap load out of pocket. The SK are for such people.
I can tell most of you have never worked with a SAN or even understand how it stores data.
Imagine a big ass RAID array, only with dozens or hundreds of disks and a few servers and a complex network controlling it all.
What likely happened was the equivalent of deleting the partition(s) on your computer and swapping out the motherboard, then realizing you didn't back anything up. A shitty situation to be sure, but not a situation that can't be undone through hard work and many stressful nights. The data was still likely striped across all of the discs, they probably just needed to "put the puzzle" back together by figuring out how the LUNs were created.
No magic dust necessary. Ballmer was standing over the team with a lazyboy in hand ready to go all ape on their sorry asses if they didn't recover the data. Because ya know chair throwing is how Steve rolls.
Or are as big of a lackey as iPhone users. Remember that there are idiots out there and they aren't all use Fruit Phones.
ah the saga ends... I wonder how their PR is feeling right now... Glad everyone got their data back, I'd be pissed if that happened to me
It's a trap!