SEATTLE, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Hotmail service, the world's most-used online email system, is
back to normal operations on Monday after some users over the
weekend lost access to emails or found them transferred to a
deleted mail folder.
The world's largest software company, which has more than
360 million Hotmail users, said it has "restored full email
access and recovered content to those who were affected."
Microsoft's online message boards and Twitter were abuzz
with complaints Sunday about the Hotmail glitch. Microsoft said
on Monday it was still investigating the root cause of the
problem, which started four days ago.
"Beginning on Dec 30, we had an issue with Windows Live
Hotmail that impacted 17,355 accounts," Chris Jones, a
Microsoft executive, said in a company blog on Monday.
"Customers impacted temporarily lost the contents of their
mailbox through the course of mailbox load balancing between
servers."
He said Microsoft will take steps to prevent a similar
occurrence. "We're very sorry for the inconvenience this may
have caused to you, our customers and partners," he added.
(Reporting by Bill Rigby, editing by Maureen Bavdek, Gary
Hill)
Microsoft Partner 
