Some Sidekick Users May Recover Data

After initially warning Sidekick users that there was an "extremely low" chance that their personal data could be recovered, T-Mobile has changed its tune and now reports that Microsoft has made progress in its efforts to restore data from backups. "Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible," T-Mobile said late Monday on its Sidekick forum. Reports are emerging that some users have actually had their data restored. 

Microsoft said yesterday that there was no truth to rumors that the company had no backups for the Sidekick data stored at its Danger subsidiary. "There was back up for the data." Microsoft said in a statement. "However, the initial server failure impacted both the main and backup databases, so the data recovery process has been incredibly complex."

Microsoft's press statement did not provide details about how both the primary and backup databases could be affected by the same event - a possibility most backup systems are designed to avert. But Microsoft confirmed that the Sidekick data was housed at Danger, a software company Microsoft bought in 2008, rather than any of Microsoft's enormous cloud computing centers.

"The Sidekick runs on Danger’s proprietary service that Microsoft inherited when it acquired Danger in 2008," Microsoft said. "The Danger service is built on a mix of Danger created technologies and 3rd party technologies. Microsoft’s other cloud computing projects are totally separate from the Danger Service and do not rely on the Danger Service technology." 

Here's a key question: If there was still hope that Microsoft could recover the data from backup, why would T-Mobile tell users that their data was probably lost? It remains to be seen. For now, the recovery effort continues.