Slashdot Mirror


Hotmail Loses Customer Files

Rick Zeman writes "News.com is reporting that Microsoft's Hotmail service has lost customers' files 'due to 'system events.' The particular user cited, of course, has no recourse because of the broad disclaimers companies such as Microsoft hide behind; however, you are getting what you pay for. The scariest part of the article, however, is when a spokesman for iBackup, an Internet-based backup company, disclaims,'We do not provide a 100 percent guarantee that the backup will take place' of customers' data being stored with them for a fee."

20 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no! by blowdart · · Score: 4, Funny

    I lost all those megabytes of increase my penis size email!

    1. Re:Oh no! by Nobody+You+Know · · Score: 4, Funny

      And whatever is that poor Nigerian businessman going to do now that I've lost his e-mail address?

    2. Re:Oh no! by D-Cypell · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hahahaha... excellent!! I had the foresight not to use a hotmail address to conduct my business dealings, now those Nigerian millions are all mine!!!

      Fancy conducting multi-million business deals using hotmail! Im glad im not as big a fool as you!

    3. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Laugh all you want, but I put my money where my mouth was, and tried every penis extender I got spam for, and now it's the size of a louisville slugger!

      But- I can no longer wear pants, and every time I get excited...I pass out.

      (Is there such a thing as anti-viagra?)

  2. Well, you know what they say... by jjohn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Events happen.

    I didn't want all that spam that had accumulated in my hotmail account anyway.

    1. Re:Well, you know what they say... by justkarl · · Score: 4, Funny

      Switch to Yahoo! Mail.
      Switch to pop3! Wait, is this not slashdot, where everybody has their own web/mail server in their kitchen? Why stick with the web crap, really?

  3. 'system events.' by FrivolousPig · · Score: 5, Funny

    = blue screen of death

    --
    ~ All comments automatically moderated -1 since 2004 ~
  4. they have already lost some info before... by DangerSteel · · Score: 5, Funny

    like my e-mail address to every known spammer in the universe. Hell, I'm getting e-mails to enlarge my tentacles and re-grow my third eye through Hotmail...

  5. Wow thanks I still have all my Hotmail spam! by Numeric · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had to double check my hotmail.com account after reading this alarming post. I was happy to find all my spam still in my account! Thank you to all the Hotmail.com admins.

    --
    -- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
  6. Re:Scary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    > Duh. There are no 100% guarantees of anything in life.

    Death, taxes.

    Oh, and lieing salesmen/politicians, but those probably fall under one of the first 2.

  7. Re:Just goes to show you .... by TeraCo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't see how that will guarantee it.. accidents still happen. Tape drives fail. Hard disks get dropped into tubs of jelly, etc.

    The only way to truely secure your data is to hire a team of tibetan monks to each remember 1/5th of it. THen they can sing it back to you.

    --
    Not Meta-modding due to apathy.
  8. PFFT! by chrome · · Score: 2, Funny

    Any geek worth his salt has his own mailserver running a custom distribution with his own webmail over SSL, IMAP etc access and half a terabyte of storage. Hotmail! PFFT!

    Besides, who cares if Hotmail loses data. I lose data all the time. I don't get upset. Why should I get upset if my email provider loses some worthless mail. Anything important, I make a couple of copies and keep them around on CD, encrypted of course!

  9. Re:Just goes to show you .... by PingvinRich · · Score: 5, Funny
    The only way to truely secure your data is to hire a team of tibetan monks to each remember 1/5th of it. Then they can sing it back to you.

    Better still, hire half a dozen and RAID them.
  10. Re:Just goes to show you .... by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Funny

    Would that be a MONK-5 array or a a Beowolf Cloister?

  11. Re:Just goes to show you .... by nacturation · · Score: 5, Funny

    Redundant Enlightened Array of Monks -- REAM them!

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  12. Re:Events happen? Events happen? by coolfrood · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was like.. beep, beep, beep, and all my events were gone. Then I had to do the event again, and it wasn't as good. It was... a bummer.

  13. Re:Just goes to show you .... by wizard992 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would we always loose one monk to parity?

    Poor monk...

  14. Re:Just goes to show you .... by 1hurcoman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Reminds me of a story I heard when I worked in the data center of a oil company. Apparently, back in the days of the big mainframe, one of the techs was changing out a reel. Now keep in mind this tech was not known for being a shining star (and they kept him on to the end!). He proceeds to take the backup tape the bathroom with him, and accidently drops in the can while in there! Needless to say it cost a fortune for the company to recover the data off of the tape. After that, the running joke was when you left for the can, you were "changing out backup tapes".

  15. Re:Just goes to show you .... by NaugaHunter · · Score: 2, Funny

    Reminds me of a hospital that had to restore from a three tape backup. It turned out that the night tech either wasn't properly trained, or was lazy, but really had no concept of the point of it all. When the system prompted "Hit return when next tape is ready>", they would just rewind the tape on the drive and hit return.

    --
    R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
  16. Re:Just goes to show you .... by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Redundant Enlightened Array of Monks -- REAM them!

    In Soviet Russia, MEN OF THE CLOTH REAM-- no, I shouldn't say it...