Not All is Lost on the Sidekick: Contacts Recouped

Microsoft says there is a new recovery tool on T-Mobile's website that can restore Sidekick users' contact list.

T-Mobile Sidekick phones that lost the information stored on them now can at least get the contact lists back.

Phone numbers, photos and other personal data started disappearing from Sidekick phones a week and half ago, because of a breakdown of servers run by Microsoft Corp., which owns the Sidekick maker and runs its data services.

Now Microsoft has a partial save in this embarrassing mishap. It said Tuesday that Sidekick owners can use a recovery tool on T-Mobile’s Web site. The tool will only restore contacts, but Microsoft is working on also retrieving photos, notes, to-do lists, high scores in video games and other data.

Microsoft bought Danger Inc., the maker of the Sidekick, last year, and took over the servers that store user data. After the malfunction, Microsoft said it has improved the service’s stability and the backup process.

The data disappearance led several customers to file lawsuits, with some of them seeking class-action status.

T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, has stopped selling Sidekicks, listing all models as “temporarily out of stock” on its Web site.