Two Days, Two Crashes, Everything Lost

[Joseph777]

For the last month I have been setting up a website that integrates a shopping store with a vbulletin forum. Actually opening a legitimate business...

I started out a year ago as a rookie to all of this, but now I am doing my own basic html, css, etc...

I spent two entire days (Wednesday and Thursday) working on the site, modifications to templates, styles, custom html pages, links, banners, etc... and right before I go to backup ... BOOM! It's all gone. The server goes crazy.

Host says "We can't back it up this time."

No problem. I spend two more days doing all of the work again and right before I go to backup ... BOOM! It's all gone... AGAIN!!! Server crashes...

There idea of fixing it (won't tell me what the problem was) was reverting my server back 12 hours or more, folks, that's 12 hours of WORK!!! --> Gone

These people are nuts! Sorry, but I had to gripe and yell, and I didn't know where else to do it. Oh ya, it was data393.

[Bema Jinn]

Tell them you want some kind of compendation.


Can't you just back up as you';re doing it?

[Scott MacVicar]

Kinda dodgy backup system there?

We do backups daily that are then sent offsite and i think we take a copy to the dev server too.

[Joseph777]

Tell them you want some kind of compendation.

Yah, as if... It is in their TOS that they are not responsible for lost data... I have had such a good track record with them that I figured a couple of days without backing up wouldn't be a big deal. I was on a different platform until recently, went six months with almost 100% uptime and no crashes of any sort. Then I went to a different platform and it seems to be "riddled" with problems. The PEM platform. It is a shared account.

Can't you just back up as you';re doing it?

I never considered that. But thanks for the idea. I will do that from this point on. File by file, if I have to...

[Joseph777]

Kinda dodgy backup system there?

We do backups daily that are then sent offsite and i think we take a copy to the dev server too.

Yah, I know... I am going to look for a different webhost.

[Zachery]

Time to find a good new host.

[Joseph777]

Time to find a good new host.

Taking suggestions via pm

[Joseph777]

I hope they enjoy this message:

Dear XXXXXXX Professional:

Please close my account.

There are two main reasons why I wish to discontinue doing business with XXXXXXX.

The first: Since I began using the XXXXXXX plan a short time ago, I have encountered nothing but problems. Constant "page cannot be displayed" messages, server nonresponsive periods, crashes, and various other malfunctions and oddities.

Twice within a couple of days the server crashed or seized (quit functioning in laymen's terms). The first time it crashed, I had spent several weeks building my website and it locked up and would do nothing. Most of this work was in template modifications and graphics customizations. I contacted the technical support team via this XXXXXXX and I was told that they could not revert my server because I didn't have the "backup plan". I then went ahead and erased SEVERAL WEEKS of hard work (6-10 hour days), only to be told a short time later by the same employee that it was a mistake and they could have reverted it for me. The second time it crashed, I had just finished spending two days of almost around-the-clock time restoring everything manually, when all of a sudden the server freaked out again. It would not respond. This time I lost two ENTIRE days of coding, graphics manipulation, template modifications, etc. I was then informed that everything had been repaired. When I checked my site, I found that an entire day's worth of my work (listed above) was gone. My files had been reverted without warning, without explanation! And my site was malfunctioning badly, half of the site was stuck in "webmaster mode".

This was not my first experience with XXXXXXX, and I was not entirely happy the first time, but I decided to give them another chance because of the great uptime. Well, now that uptime and functionality are apparently a thing of the past. Not to mention, that most of your technical support crew spends the majority of their time being "mistaken" (in their own terms).

This has been an absolute nightmare for me. It has destroyed an entire week of my life.

I am humbly requesting that my last payment not be billed or be refunded to me, as I never was able to obtain any productive usage from access to your servers. If anything, I lost weeks and weeks of my precious time and hard work.

Please take this under consideration.

Thank you for your time,
ME.

[Mayers]

This sounds alot like my out host, they would do the samething you've said. Besure to save your data. I'm one of those odd geeks, anytime i'm making something on my computer I save it every 10 mins, because I know how this computer can be at times. I also keep the backup on two other servers.

[David Gonzalez]

you know, you should say the hosting site so people here don't go to it and prevent users for having nightmares

[Joseph777]

you know, you should say the hosting site so people here don't go to it and prevent users for having nightmares

Well, I wouldn't want to badmouth a host whose name rhymes with Beta393

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Just 1 general advice:
If you plan to leave a host, make 200% sure you have everything backed up double BEFORE you give them notice that you want to leave them. This should not happen with a good and professional host, but i have seen it happen that a host wouldn't allow access to backups when a customer is leaving.

[Joseph777]

Yes, I will give them that. They did ask me for confirmation that I had everything I needed off of the server before they did anything. In theory they were a good host, but in practice they could not get it right. The sales team and the technical team spend a large amount of their time being "mistaken" or "clueless".

I really didn't have anything to backup anyway as far as database speaking. Because I was just setting up shop, there were no customers or posters yet. They just kept forcing me to lose my content that I worked SOOO HARD on... Either way, I will be smarter now and make two copies of all file mods, one on the server and one on my computer, maybe even one on a disk.

Anyways, I just purchased a virtual dedicated. Ya buddy, I am going to be spoiled. Telnet / SSH here I come!