Make sure you don't waste space on your webhost

How to make sure you don't waste space on your webhost - for those who have websites

When I buy a webhosting package, I make sure I don't choose an overly large package. I won't need more than 100 megabytes of space for a small site, or 500 megabytes for a relatively large one. A smaller account may cost down to 25 dollars a year, compared to a larger one at around 4-5 dollars a month.

But even so, I always get those warnings that I've exceeded 80 percent of my allotted storage space at the end of the month. So here's some hard won advice on figuring out where your webhost account has bloated.

1) Check Disk Usage Viewer

This is a nifty app you can find in Cpanel. It shows you how much space your different folders take up, with the largest one at the top. Remember that there are ways to alter what it shows you, even the depth. There may be folders below the webfolder that contain a lot of junk. But this is a great starting point. For those with shell access, there are unix commands you can use, such as du.

2) Check the logs

All hosts are different in this regard, but you may find you have rather large log files or archives of log files piling up. Download old archives, and remove them from the webhost

3) Check statistics

Depending on the size and traffic your site experiences, Awstats can make some hefty monthly files. How does several megabytes per month strike you for a busy site? Download and clean out if you're really low on space. Remember that you'll lose the ability to watch Awstats for past month online after you do that.

4) Scripts

A guestbook script ate itself recently. Started adding thousands of lines of nonsense. Considering the script added backups quite often, the guestbook gobbled up more and more space until I had nothing left and I couldn't even receive mail.

Keep an eye on scripts that add plain text logs and files.

It could be a script run amok, or just a poorly maintained site, and suddenly you're out of space.

5) Detritus

Maybe you add stuff for others to download now and then? Like MP3 files, big images, zip files. Stuff that's easily forgotten. Orphan files.. Make sure you remove those. And make sure you know your site, so you know what you can remove, and what's part of the site.

6) Trashcan

If you've got a cpanel equipped host, and use the File Manager to delete files, keep in mind that they aren't deleted straight away. They stay in the trashcan (like in Windows) until you empty it. So empty yours now, just in case.

7) Databases

Normally, you'll be able to keep an eye on the size of databases via cpanel. And depending on your site, they may not be that large. But if you've got a big forum, or a blog that's regularly spammed, you may find yourself deciding between pruning the database or buying more space. This situation would normally take a long time to develop however. If you don't have cpanel, check out phpMyAdmin. It's a great tool for manipulating the contents of a database.

How to free up space on your home/office computer's hard drive