Microsoft and T-Mobile learn backing up data makes sense

Think for a moment if your phone suddenly died and there was no way to access the information on-board. Would all your contact info be lost forever (or at least until the person calls you) or do you have a back-up? If you don’t, you may want to do a back-up immediately.

Sidekick Snafu

Microsoft and T-Mobile have learned the hard way the past couple weeks that not having a secure back-up is playing with fire, in a gas station, that has no fire extinguisher. The popular T-Mobile Sidekick stores most of it’s information, including contacts, notes, calendar entries, to-dos, etc., on servers at Danger, the creator of the device that is owned by Microsoft. While they were performing maintenance on the servers, something went awry and all data was lost. Gone forever to where dreams die.

So let this serve as a warning to you that your information is never safe unless you have a working back up. Storing this back up off-site is even more safe, and having your information backed up frequently is the best.

Below is a copy of the statement on this issue by Microsoft and T-Mobile

Quote:

Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.

Updated: 10/10/2009 12:35 PM PDT

T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption.

We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.

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. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips in our Sidekick Contacts FAQ. We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.

In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including the data recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or suggestions that may help in restoring your content.

We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers’ personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer.

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.

Once again, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has caused.

Source Endgadget Mobile via HipTop3.com