I missed my renewal date for my website hosting package by about 6 months and when i realised i contacted the hosting company to renew and they told me they had deleted my website data and if i wanted to renew i would need to send them my website data again. Is this normal practise? thanks

Yep .....


Let's face it missing a renewal by SIX months is abandoning the website.

You could ask them to check if they have any backups of your account still - many providers forget to clean up backups from inactive accounts

I think that you need to check that time frame in the TOS (AUP). Some web hosts may store your data for 3 months, some for 6 months etc...
Depends.

I believe backup is something you need to take care of personally.
It is not really good situation for you but I'm sure you have learned your lesson

Backup your database everyday!

How can you miss your website date for six months? if you didn't need the site for half a year, maybe you don't need it at all?

I would demand a back up. It is kind of irresponsible of the host to not back this stuff up but 6 months after inactivity? I think you are out of luck.

I know as a fact I keep my own back ups while my host keeps my stuff for at least a year.

Originally Posted by SaDidi

How can you miss your website date for six months? if you didn't need the site for half a year, maybe you don't need it at all?

If he is looking for the ways of restoring that I think he does need that web site

Hello,

We actually terminate an account after 60 days and from experience at that point the website is likely to be abandoned. 6 months is completely understandable on the hosts part.

Regards,
Jack

Contact with a computer expert.He will definitely help you.

Originally Posted by jhnvolt

Contact with a computer expert.He will definitely help you.

Out of curiosity, what do you expect a computer expert to be able to do in this situation?

I suppose that is your fault. And now you will need to restore everything from very beginning.

That's fairly standard practice. There's not much business sense for a provider to keep a backup of a site that they haven't been making revenue from for half a year. If your data is important to you it's never a good idea to solely rely on your host's network backup - better to also have your own.

Haven't you asked them to send you a backup of your site. backuping your site is a good practice, you should use it in future.

Originally Posted by 51down

Backup your database everyday!

Hi,
I think this could be great and thanks for the information that you shared with us here..