I'm currently with a host who shall remain unnamed (their account on WHT is disabled due to advertising in a non-ad forum), and their server have been down for over 60 hours already. I've finally been able to contact them via AIM, and their reply was that there is a kernel problem, and since they *can't afford* to pay for it, they don't know when my sites and emails will be back up.

As you will no doubt agree - this is a very unprofessional behaviour for a host. But I really, really need my sites back up asap.

I know for a fact that they have their server with Rackshack, so I've emailed them about the situation already. I've explained to them the circumstances surrounding the server in question, and asked if they would be so kind as to place the harddrive on another server for us to download our sites at least.

I'd really, really appreciate getting Cpanel access, but I'm not sure if Rackshack can help out. I've many large MySQL db that are very important to me, and my backups are at least a fortnight old. The only way I know to download the databases is via Cpanel. So in case we only get FTP access, does anyone know how I can retrieve my dbs?

But does anyone have any experience with Rackshack helping out in such a situation? I'm really hoping that Rackshack will be able to let us customers get Cpanel access to make backups of our sites before they pull the plug :(

Rackshack/EV1 provides only unmanaged servers, so only experienced hosts should ever get an account with them because the host is completely and totally responsible for running their server. Unfortunately, many newbies to hosting jump at the good prices that RS offers and think for one reason or another that they can run their own web hosting company (it's *not* a simple task).

Unfortunately, until your host figures out a way to fix their box, you're pretty much out of luck. I'm going to take a guess here and say that they've tried to upgrade their kernal, screwed up, didn't have a backup to the old one in lilo.conf?

Now, if he does get another server with a wiped drive, I have heard of RS mounting the old one temporarily and letting the customer extract the data, but I don't know if they will do this all the time. Even so, if your host doesn't have enough money to pay for someone to fix the problem, they probably don't have enough money to order an additional server.

Change to a more reliable host, theirs nothing you can do and if they have such financial trouble what would happen if their server was taken offline for TOS Abuse?

Remember to keep YOUR OWN backups. Don't rely on your host even if its a feature they offer.

Yea depends on how they updated their kernel, if they kept the old one they could ask RS to boot from that.

I don't see how they can't afford to have it fixed :eek:

Depending on how badly you need the databases perhaps you could work out a deal with your host to hire someone to resolve the issue in order for you to regain your data...

If they are so smart as to delete the old kernel before verifying that the new one works, all the power to them. They need all the luck they can get on top of possibly some... brain power. Either that or they aren't aware that it's possible.

If they can't afford to pay for it, then something is just screaming to ask you to move. Even if they survive this round, what is to say that they would last much longer? I would suspect this host is charging pennies. How much do you pay and for what? Asking for a restore is quite cheap actually if you ask me at rackshack.

Brilliant - Coach. Are you psychic or what? Right on all counts! Including the server problem :D

Unfortunately, as you've mentioned as well - the host can't pay for a new server. I'm really, really hoping that Rackshack will be kind enough to mount the harddrive on another server and let us retrieve the stuff (they'd need to sort out the issues with the drive itself first, though).

Does anyone know if RS will help out with this?

MN-Robert - I do have backups, but they're outdated. So a move is completely out of order until I get my updated files :(

Originally posted by Alpharo
Does anyone know if RS will help out with this?

No they won't

RS won't help at all? You sure about that? I'm really banking on that as my last hope for retrieving my data :(

RS won't help at all? You sure about that? . . .. . . I have heard of RS mounting the old one temporarily and letting the customer extract the data, but I don't know if they will do this all the time. . . .I've seen those threads around here.

Only if they pay for an osrestore :)

They will give you a fresh hdd as the primary drive and mount the old primary so the host can move it over. Human error = they will have to pay.

Pretty much, No. RS/EV1 responsibility is chiefly on the hardware aspects of the server but no so much to troubleshoot.

The last time I heard was that they could restore a fresh OS setup and mount the existing harddisk for a period of time to allow them to transfer the data over. If I am not wrong, that would cost something in the region of $29. If they are unable to afford that, I am not sure how they could afford to run their business. Of course, they must know how to mount and transfer the files.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Originally posted by Alpharo
RS won't help at all? You sure about that? I'm really banking on that as my last hope for retrieving my data :(
You are not the server owner, they won't help you at all.

Best of luck and I hope you choose your next host wisely.

You get what you pay for.

You get what you pay for.


Nuff said. :D

Originally posted by Alpharo
Brilliant - Coach. Are you psychic or what? Right on all counts! Including the server problem :D

Unfortunately, as you've mentioned as well - the host can't pay for a new server. I'm really, really hoping that Rackshack will be kind enough to mount the harddrive on another server and let us retrieve the stuff (they'd need to sort out the issues with the drive itself first, though).

Does anyone know if RS will help out with this?

MN-Robert - I do have backups, but they're outdated. So a move is completely out of order until I get my updated files :(

Hopefully, your host does have $29 to spare for a two to 24 hour restore and get the restore done, but tell them to ask RS to do what I mentioned.

I'm not a psychic, but just an educated guess when you've seen enough uneducated people mess things up because they have no clue what they're doing and think that running a hosting business is as simple as clicking a button in CPanel. (Not to insult anyone because we all started out with server management as newbies as well... just most successful hosts that end up actually making it and are around a while actually learn what they're doing before offering their services and have the financial resources and business plan to do more than just scrape by praying that a disaster doesn't strike.)

One way if the data is so important to you...

Pay the $29 on their behalf, and grab your data and run as fast as you can. I value data to be worth a lot more than $29. But that's just me.

Originally posted by sprintserve
One way if the data is so important to you...

Pay the $29 on their behalf, and grab your data and run as fast as you can. I value data to be worth a lot more than $29. But that's just me.

That's what I would do if it's important enough to you.

It actually seems costier to pay the monthly fees and just let the system idle around unless they decided to abandon the whole venture after one setback. Go figure.. Some people are probably just penny wise but pound foolish.

US$45 a month and you tell me I get what I paid for for 5/60Gb? :o

I WILL pay the US$29 for a system restore, but I'm not the server owner - will RS let me do that? I hope to be able to make Cpanel-based backups so I can get my stuff going with the new host asap.

Well end of the day, if they can't pay 29$ to restore the system:
1. They are lying
2. They still aren't charging enough no matter what you pay. typical of fly by night hosts.

Neither is a good thing. Go figure.

Okay wait - so can I actually pay them for the OS restore even when I'm not the server owner, get access to Cpanel, download my stuff and run like hell?

I think you have to talk to Rackshack about it. It is their call. I guess they might require some proof that you have a domain in there or something. It is best to check with them. We can only speculate.

Well one of the ways, is to talk to the host, and tell them to do all the work (restoring their backups, mounting, getting everything back up to shape), but you would cover the $29 for them (and pay directly to Rackshack so that you know there's no shennigans.

The problem would be the fact that the host is hardly ever contactable - emails are down, AIM is rare... you get the picture.

I'd do anything to convince RS to let me get all my stuff off the server asap.

Does the host has an off-site email address which you could use to contact them with ? Do a DNS lookup on their domain name, it should (hopefully) contain a valid email address or telephone number which you can use.

Does look like the host abandoned everything at the first sign of trouble.

Unfortunately, the host listed his emails as the main site's emails, which are of course down.

I've contacted RS directly, and hope they'll have a favourable reply towards my request for a OS restore.

Originally posted by sprintserve
Well one of the ways, is to talk to the host, and tell them to do all the work (restoring their backups, mounting, getting everything back up to shape), but you would cover the $29 for them (and pay directly to Rackshack so that you know there's no shennigans.

This is what I would do, if the host is smart they'll say YES since you're offering to pay $29 and they get access to the entire hard drive as a result.

When you do a whois lookup on the domain, is there a phone number listed for the host? If there isn't is there a physical address? PM it to me and I can find the phone number (if it's listed).

Well you still need th host intervention as they are unlikely to want to give you the ability to login as root to fix up things.

Try talking to RS. maybe something can be worked out.

Alpharo PM'd me the domain, I did a whois ... all the contact emails belong to the web host in question, there is a name and physical address listed but no phone number.

Looking up directories by this name yields 0 matches.

However I was able to lookup by their last name, scanned through 37 names and BINGO found the one with the address. I also cross referenced with reverse phone number and reverse address lookups, bingo same results.

He's either a minor (his mother is listed) or it's his spouse, I'll call tomorrow and get some answers (I hope).

Great detective work ;)

Originally posted by sprintserve
Great detective work ;)

Thanks :)

I am more than happy to help out Alpharo, I just hope that after the fiasco is over they choose a reputable web host.

PM'ed you the reply, RossMAN. Many thanks :D

I'm doing a lot of digging around now for a decent host to work with. 3rd time lucky, I'd hope!