If you have decided to go for purchasing a web hosting plan for your website
, you need to see whether it contains the basic features or not.
Disk space' is one such feature that needs to be considered while hiring a web hosting service provider. In every hosting account the user is offered fixed amount of disk space used for storing files. Selection of disk space differs from one host to another. Therefore you should have clear idea as to what files and amount of files you want to store in the given disk space.
Take out the exact estimate of requirements needed for every task. Find out how much space would you need to store in your log files, web files, emails and databases. When you divide the usage pattern it becomes easy to track down the total space you should opt for.
Your plan contains web accessible files during the calculation of the disk space usage. Some hosts commit the mistake of accessing the total disk space by the number of emails and log files in their quota. This has drawback of giving idea of space needed for storing web files because emails and log files number changes over a certain period of time.
Some people may say that a web host should have all types of file storage in their quota, therefore see whether you can switch off the logs or exit any specific information. If such option is available you would save on disk space especially the site that has continuous traffic flow. Many hosting plans also offers statistics package, here you have to allow few loggings to be done.
If your email settings and inboxes are included in your disk quota, it might be an idea to set the maximum size of each mailbox if it is possible. This will save you from storing too much mail on the server and inadvertently going over your limit. If the disk space quota includes email settings and inboxes than choose the maximum big size of the mailbox. This step would avoid storing excessive emails on the server, thus not exceeding the limit.
In case you include the logs, you cannot erase it from the log file unless and until the server has stopped writing on it. Logs of daily basis can be managed easily if you log in, download it and delete it regularly. You may experience problems in monthly logs if the log space requirement is not accurate and thus file cannot be deleted till month end leading to extra charges.