was anyone else affected by this?

You are receiving this message because our records show you have an active
web hosting account with Tera-Byte Dot Com Inc. that has been affected by
a hardware failure today. We regret to inform you that the server hosting
your account has suffered a complete hard drive failure. Our technicians
are in the process of setting up all accounts from the affected server on
a new server and will email you with your login information as soon as
your account has been set up.

Due to the nature of the hard drive failure, we have been unable to
retrieve any data whatsoever. Once you receive the email with the login
information, you will be able to set up your extra email accounts and
upload your files to the web server.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and we are working as quickly
as possible to get your site back online. We thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Tera-Byte Network Operations

Originally posted by en2
was anyone else affected by this?

You are receiving this message because our records show you have an active
web hosting account with Tera-Byte Dot Com Inc. that has been affected by
a hardware failure today. We regret to inform you that the server hosting
your account has suffered a complete hard drive failure. Our technicians
are in the process of setting up all accounts from the affected server on
a new server and will email you with your login information as soon as
your account has been set up.

Due to the nature of the hard drive failure, we have been unable to
retrieve any data whatsoever. Once you receive the email with the login
information, you will be able to set up your extra email accounts and
upload your files to the web server.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and we are working as quickly
as possible to get your site back online. We thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Tera-Byte Network Operations

What does there TOS say about backups?

it says -

"Customer is responsible for independent backup of all such data at a site determined by customer."

- so legally they are OK

but i think most people would expect their host to at least do some sort of backup every now and then

very poor service in my opinion

:(

I have been hit by the same type of thing (although not with terabyte), its not very nice to loose everything, but there is little you can do, they say SPECIFICALLY they do not backup your data, they openly admit its upto you, lol

I now have a system in place that automatically backs up the important parts of my data and server to an alternate machine, it was setup by a friend so dont ask me how it is done, lol

Maybe you should look into doing the same?

Regards

XT

Originally posted by en2
but i think most people would expect their host to at least do some sort of backup every now and then

very poor service in my opinion

:( [/B]

They don't offer backup as an feature. So, you cannot blame them.

Some hosts included backup as an feature but indeed they don't.

So, I think tera byte are good honest host.

They don't offer backup as an feature. So, you cannot blame them.

Some hosts included backup as an feature but indeed they don't.

So, I think tera byte are good honest host.

We're not blaming them, just most hosts should back up their clients data, and if they don't, they will generally be classified as a lower-class web host.

Originally posted by en2
it says -

"Customer is responsible for independent backup of all such data at a site determined by customer."

- so legally they are OK

but i think most people would expect their host to at least do some sort of backup every now and then

very poor service in my opinion

:(
If you expect your host to do 'some sort of back up every now and then' after reading, "Customer is responsible for independent backup of all such data..." then you need to reread that line one more time. This is about as clear as you can get. You can't expect it to be presently more clearly than this.

Even with hosts that have backup (or claim to have backup), your best bet is to *always* be responsible for backing up your data. Sounds like a broken record and no one wants to hear it, but sorry, it is the absolute truth and I'm not in the habit of sugar coating things just to make people feel better about their misguided desires of how hosts 'should do things'.

Backups can fail, be corrupt, etc. and there's no guarantee that a backup can be restored. If you throw down your money on the host doing your backups (100%) and don't keep something for yourself that you can at least fall back on in case of complete disaster, then you're gambling. Sometimes you win, most of the time you'll lose.

yes dynamic sites are a b*tch, but once a week at least, do a dump, get *some* data. Again, no one ever wants to hear this, but it is the truth and that's all I'll ever tell anyone.

There's also another problem with some hosts that do backups, well several actually.

For one even if a host does make a backup they generally do not guarantee the quality of that backup, which will save them if the backups are corrupted.

Also, many customers take advantage of this because they "accidentally" deleted a file and have the host restore it, I know I had to deal with a lot of that, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it does travel outside of the normal realms of support espically if the backups were mainly intended for system failures and not user failures :)

As a general rule of thumb, if you care about your data you will create your own backup and not rely on a host. Most hosts will have backups but they cannot always guarantee that they are not corrupted etc...

We all know computers are unreliable and hosts equipment have no exceptions.

This happened to me at my old host,And i lost all my data and it was never retreived.I plan to do daily backups of data for my customers,cause i think this is unacceptable.

If any of you guys are running a database (ie: mySQL, SQLServer, or Oracle) make sure you at least run weekly backups. I've gotta move hosts now 'cause my current host can't email me back about my database and the username table is all messed up. Good thing the database was only a month old. I'm moving my info now to the new host!

Backup, backup, and backup all your data!
Terry

We manage over 100 servers and we found that backups are a must. No matter what type of server you run, without a backup your dead in the water with out a paddle. We are now running 2 different backups for each server. So if you loose one backup you still have one to fall back on.

The average life of a hard drive now days is about 1-3 years if you are lucky. Recently some of our older servers have been running now 3-4 years and loosing a drive is about a monthly thing we have to work around now. For anyone running a hosting business this is something they should really invest in. Could you image emailing about 400 clients and saying your site is a total lost and its up to you to upload it again. Just think about 1/3 of those sites are installed by web designers or webmasters. That cost your clients money they shouldnt have to shell out to have them restore thier site.

I do feel everyone that has a site must have a full copy of it on thier personal computer.

If it's a unix host, just write a perl script that will tar up all of your files and mail them to you at a certain time each day.

If it's a windows host, you may be able use the Windows Scheduler on your PC in conjunction with an FTP program like WS_FTP to do something similar.

I wonder, if some hosts that actually do backups, put them on the same server, which of course would be pointless. ;)

Originally posted by chrisb
I wonder, if some hosts that actually do backups, put them on the same server, which of course would be pointless. ;)
And extending that, some hosts who actually do backups don't do them as often as it says on their site (daily backups are sometimes actually monthly backups). I've seen it posted here and while I can't think of who the posts were in reference to (surely none of the hosts who are members :D), don't rely on it 100%, and you'll be a-ok.

I've posted this before but it is so wonderful I'm posting it again (just kidding)... the only person who gives a damn about your data is you. To the host, it is a site. Yes, it is their customer's site and they care about you and your sites, but in the end, it is just another site. To you it might be everything you've been working on for months or years, etc. Big difference.

Tera-Byte also owns a host called Spaceports
Spaceports recently lost all mySQL databases due to tech probs and has no backups:rolleyes:

Good thread. It's made me change my hosting requirements. Now, I won't depend on any host to do backups. I'll do my own. Seems much safer that way.

Spaceports is a tera-byte host... that's strange. I've always found Spaceports slow to load, but tera-byte loads quickly.

Originally posted by roly
Tera-Byte also owns a host called Spaceports
Spaceports recently lost all mySQL databases due to tech probs and has no backups:rolleyes: uh, spaceports is a free service. how many free hosts offer mysql at all? exactly what do you expect for nothing?

just for the record we do back up servers and in an emergency the backup will be used to restore the clients data, however in the case of the server failure that just occured the backup was corrupted by the failed drive.
On spaceports it is a free service and no we do not do backups at all, we also do not gain any ad income from it anymore so the service has had a cap placed on its transfer so yes spaceports will be slower than tera-byte

Steve

Redirection.net (Tera-byte.com)
A Buyer Beware Story
http://www.veganic.com/redirection.html

I had a similar experience. A Tera-Byte error deleted a few of my accounts. By the way, Tera-Btye has ZERO backups. That is unacceptable for a hosting provider.

There were no apologies from Tera-Byte. They tried to blame me for the error, and when I showed evidence to the contrary, I never heard back from them.

I was not surprised one bit when I saw this post:

"We regret to inform you that the server hosting
your account has suffered a complete hard drive failure."

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=47786&highlight=tera

Tera-Byte no longer has any respect for their customers.

Originally posted by chrisb
If it's a unix host, just write a perl script that will tar up all of your files and mail them to you at a certain time each day.

For those perl-challenged people, care to show us the way? :D

aview:

Their TOS said that they don't do backups. It can't be clearer than that. While it may be right to expect some form of backup, if they don't, they don't.

As Chicken pointed out, even if they do, backups can still be corrupted, lost, or 1001 other ailments that may actually happen to it.

If you can control your destiny, you should. That's my motto at least.

That is unacceptable for a hosting provider
No it isn't, doing full server backups is both costly, time consuming and increases server and network loads.

If a host states they do not backup, you are an absolute moron for thinking "hurr hurr, they'll back up anyways!"

If you want a host that backs up, go with a host that guarentees back ups.

I have had an account at tera-byte for (gasp) 4 years now, and that includes the time period of this one year old thread.
I have only ever had to contact support about three times, and none of them due to any failure on their part.
Of course I have a backup. Like DUH, where did the files come from in the fist place if not my HD?
I will say the site I have there has outgrown their services, but I haven't had time to move it, and why should I? My own server only has a few more features, and tera-bytes uptime has been excellent.

What about the hosts that do daily backups to the same hard drive? It's technicly a daily backup but pretty worthless IMHO. Even backups to a 2nd hard drive on the same server does nothing if the server is hacked or a major hardware problem causes both drives to fail at the same time. Quality backups cost a significant amount of money that most people do not want to pay for. Doing backups properly will double the hosts server fees. Thats why hosts always place the responsibility on backups to the end user.

Originally posted by chrisb
I wonder, if some hosts that actually do backups, put them on the same server, which of course would be pointless. ;) It's not "pointless", it's simply meant for a purpose other than the one you are currently thinking of. It shouldn't be a big surprise that the most common use most backups have is that of repairing a mistake by the client, not recovering from a hardware failure. That said, backups are one among so many of those "intangible until you need it" things which seperate "budget" hosts from "professional" hosts.

IMO, a "professional" host will: Keep a backup on a separate drive on the same machine.
Keep a backup on a separate machine in the same facility.
Keep yet another backup off site.
Promise nothing, but prepare and attempt to deliver everything.

Obviously, it would be cost prohibitive for most hosts to do redundant backups every day, but it's not at all difficult to do daily incremental, weekly full (on-site) and bi-monthly off-site backups.

Interestingly enough, the free web hosting account I received with my home office DSL line from GTE in June of 1999 still has every file I ever uploaded to it intact after nearly four years.

Do you expect your host to serve you breakfast in bed, design the site for you, and answer your emails?

Of course not, they don't do that, just like this host doesn't back up your data. They tell you that, no beating around the bush. If you wanted back ups, you should have gone with a host that offered backups.