SIDEKICK OWNERS LOSE ALL PERSONAL INFO AFTER T-MOBILE, MICROSOFT DEVICES SERVER FAILED!

Owners of Sidekick phones may have lost all the personal info they put on the device - including contact numbers - because of the failure of high-tech computer servers that stored the data.
The incident is a huge blow to the reputation of the Sidekick and is a reminder of the dangers of trusting a single provider to safeguard personal files.

The phones are made by a Microsoft subsidiary and sold by T-Mobile USA. The companies said many Sidekick owners' information is "almost certainly" gone.

It's not clear how many customers are affected, or how many Sidekicks are in use, though the figure may be about 1 million, judging by T-Mobile statements.

It may be possible to restore some of the lost user data from a backup system, a Microsoft rep said yesterday. Engineers are working on it in the Microsoft data center where the failure occurred, she added.

T-Mobile released a statement Monday night saying the company was "hopeful that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered" and offering a $100 "customer appreciation card" to those who "have experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content."

The phones were troubled by a data outage a week ago. Service was intermittent last week, and then users started reporting that their Sidekicks had been wiped of all personal info.

"This has been a terrible experience," said Mary Boyle, of Silver Spring, Md. She said she lost more than 500 contacts, 100 pictures, a to-do list and dozens of Web passwords. She also spent eight hours on the phone last week with T-Mobile tech support, she said.

Boyle switched Monday to a BlackBerry from Verizon Wireless and said she has no intention of paying T-Mobile for quitting her contract early. "As far as I'm concerned, they very much broke their contract with me before I broke theirs," she said.

Although Sidekicks' underlying data services were working again Monday, T-Mobile warned customers not to remove their battery, reset their phone or allow it to lose power.