What happens to data on old websites.

[InertProtocol]

I was just reading an article about "Nothing on the Internet is temporary" and this got me thinking.

Say, for example, many moons ago there was a Red Alert 2 website with maps and stuff to download and use. As the users of this site have, i guess, dwindled considerably since the days when it was popular the website ceases to exist and goes off line.

I was wandering what 'happens' to all the data/information on that website?.

Is it kept (as a legal requirement) for 'X' amount of time?.

Can anyone enlighten me to satisfy my curiosity?.

 

[Dokinator]

I have always thought that when somthing is deleted from the sever it is stored on then its gone. Using my website as an example. www.echo42video.co.uk If i upload a photo and then delete it say after a month from the server, it has effectivly gone, but depending on where else that image has been displayed, it may be stored on other servers around the globe untill they choose to delete it.

please fellow overclockers, correct me if I am wrong...

 

[Dist]

There are sites like archive.org which archive billions (its over 150 billion pages I think now) of web pages around the world unless you set up robots.txt to prevent such things. This means that even if your website goes offline and all the files are gone from the HDD on the webserver, it's still possible that somewhere in the world the site has already been archived, and in the case of archive.org you can even see how the website looked on different dates as it archives multiple copies each time there is a change.

That being said though, not everything is archived, it's usually just the main look of the website, pictures, text that sort of thing. A link to a redalert 2 map would still be there but when you click on it there would be an error as the .zip or whatever file it was wouldn't be there anymore, and archiving things like that would take up WAY too much space.

 

[Antowns]

Depends on the host, sometimes hosts keep backups, but if they let their subscription to the host expire usually they get deleted after 30-60 days.