File host frustrations

I’m really upset by the problems with my file host. Let me give you the whole story.

About a year ago it was called Streamload, and I was pretty happy with the service. There may have been couple instances where access went down, but everything worked OK. You could store all the data all wanted, and for $5 a month you could download up to 1GB. I used it mostly to host the files I use in my blog, and I used HTML hotlinking codes show they would show up nicely.

In June or July 2007, however, the name and the service changed to something called “Mediamax” and it hasn’t been the same since. Files were listed as being in the database, but the links led to nowhere. They were effectively lost.

I lost a number of my older files – in some cases I only had about 10% of what I had stored. It was particularly frustrating because I would re-upload them, but the files still wouldn’t hotlink properly.

And while I could get all kinds of usability data with Streamload, none of it carried over to Mediamax. For example, I had been able to check the popularity of my files in Streamload – who downloaded what files, when, and how often – but Mediamax just told me only how much bandwidth had been used.

So much for “new and improved.”

Well, now things have gotten even worse. This past month, with little prior notification, the service changed again to www.thelinkup.com. The migration has not gone well. Even after several weeks, I still don’t have all my data. I’m afraid it now looks like all those files I had uploaded over the past couple years are completely gone.

Files that I had linked to through my blog have been effectively erased, and may not be up again. In Mediamax, those pictures at least existed in name, and there was the hope that the service would restore access at some point.

Now it seems like that will never happen. Those files are mostly likely now completely gone, and I don’t even know what I’m missing because I can’t access the old service. Fellow users are talking about a class action lawsuit, but I don’t care about that – I just want my files.

Now I have a tough choice to make: do I continue with a service that has messed me over twice, or do I jump ship and write off my losses? If it’s option A, there’s the chance that they’ll restore my links and everything will be OK.

If it’s option B, then I have to upload all my stuff again and correct the coding in nearly all 750 or so of my posts. That a huge project – something that I just can’t do sitting in a smoky PC room. I would need to set aside significant blocks of time for that, and I can’t think of a time anywhere in the next six months when I’ll have that.

What a frustrating mess….