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A UK-based web hosting provider, 123-reg, has inadvertently deleted many customer websites, which the company blames on a "clean-up" error, after running an automated script that performs several maintenance tasks in order to optimise and tidy-up the data on its servers.

No comment has been made by the company as to the specific behind what caused the disruption or whether the 123-reg keeps a backup copy of its customers' data.

Some people pay for a private server - a dedicated computer that hosts only their website - but this can be expensive.

It confirmed to the BBC that it had "effectively deleted" sites due to a bug in a clean-up script running on its VPS systems, virtual private servers that customers have access to like a real machine.

The company said: "We can conclude that the issues faced have resulted in some data loss for some customers".

However, more serious is the apparent silence from 123-reg.

'If you are now offline and would like to restore from your own backup to save time we can set you up a new VPS image, ' the company told customers in its fourth service update over the two-day outage, before adding this morning that 'customers that have a local backup of their VPS are advised to rebuild their servers. Other affected 123-Reg customers can feel free to contact us with their experiences, here. Some sites are unlikely to ever be restored though, leaving customers without a website to trade from and potentially ending their business.

An online retailer selling mobile phone accessories and audio equipment said via Twitter that its site had been affected by the "catastrophic" event, and asked users to send queries to its Facebook page. As of Monday morning the company's website was still unavailable.

One user pointed out that last September 123 Reg itself posted a Twitter message warning of the dangers of data loss. "This has come back to haunt you", the user wrote.

Winslow said the company has now instituted measures created to prevent such an incident from occurring again, including requiring human approval for the deletion of virtual servers. He said the company plans to roll out an automatic backup platform by the end of the year. In an email to customers yesterday, 123-reg said it expected to begin restoring service overnight with more sites coming back online during the week.

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Source: 123-reg websites deleted after technical fault hits United Kingdom web host