sorry to hear about your disaster at least the hosting company was honest with you, mistakes do happen I lost a dedicated once when the hard drive crashed, and I didn't have a backup, learned the hard way paying for a back up is a smart thing to do if you can't manage the size of the backup yourself, it saves alot in the end of course good luck in getting up and running again asap
OMG how can someone just go I'll just reformat this drives with 5 Terabytes of Data, they must of had a idiot working there or something.
well, you should always do backups this is what webmaster should do this also let you learn the importance of backup your files but the host wiped out your dedicated server I believe you should ask them for a year free of charge negotia with them don't let them give what they think is good for something they done wrong at least get about half year free three months come on the time for you to install and reupload everything could and might even take up to 1 - 2 months so... .what is the point having actually 1 - 2 months free if i would you, i will tell them to extent the free hosting time
Oh man, I am so sorry that happened to you. Do you know what country the host is located in? That would go a long way to answering your question I do believe. I will say as soon as I read your post I started doing full backups of my SQL databases. I agree with other posters - depending on the law in the particular state/country your host is located you may have a very good legal case. But even if you have little legal recourse, you can always negotiate with them making sure to let them know you are a very vocal member of the web hosting community.
I think 3 months free hosting is their initial offer. You might want to consider asking for 6 months. Realistically it sounds like they are aware that someone screwed up. I wouldn't doubt someone is fired over this. Depending on how much you pay monthly and how long you have been a client you might want to ask to speak with someone in charge over the phone to discuss the matter. Try not to sound threatening or angry imho. Sound sad and upset. Say you are happy they have offered 3 months but you realize your losses are far greater and that it would be in both theirs and your interest if you could get 6 months. Tell them you just want to focus on rebuilding but it will take you months to regain what was lost. Sorry to hear this. It's just a mistake though and they do happen. Someone in their employ is a fool. 5TB's gone....OMG. I feel for you bro. And yes...even if you had backups...it would take weeks with a good connection to upload it all. 5TB's are no BS to deal with...it's an astronomical amount of data to be hosting. You should buy a backup solution but it will probably cost $5-10k.
you got to give them that, their honesty. personally i would just come up with some bs excuse to cover my a$$. tell me about it The hosting company is in the US and its also a pretty well known one me too and i will, as soon as i wort out this mess. after reading all comments i think that this is the invertible move, i wont try get more than i am entitled too, i do respect the fact that they were honest, that for me earned points. After all we are human
I would consider switching hosting companies (once everything is back up), I mean they must have some very incompetent employees there.
ROFL! Sorry I am laughing but since post 1 I expected to read Midphase there somewhere... Well well, I had a VPS there for over a year and decided to move to wiredtree (awesome service BTW), but only after I have sent a few unpolite mails to those morrons there (yes, I can call them morrons and still be nice to them). Now what surprised me is that they have a new general manager, a great guy btw that has been quite helpful, still I quit. If you need any contact there (including marc bollinger contact - the general manager) pm me.
are these sister concerns? how can a host be so stupid.... somebody blog about this and put it on digg.... this one deserves to be on the homepage......