When DivShare launched in 2007, they offered unlimited storage space and would accept files as large as 200 MB. You could even hotlink to images hosted on Divshare from your own blog / website and thus save bandwidth bills.

A year later, DivShare announced that files hosted on DivShare servers will be inaccessible to visitors from Asia because online advertising was weak in that region. This limit did no apply to DivShare customers who had a paid account.

Another service called Streamload MediaMax made its debut at CES 2006 and offered 25 GB of free online storage space with no restrictions on file size. They did manage to create a substantial user base because the offered space was much larger than any of the competing services.

But in April this year, MediaMax changed its name to “The LinkUp” and asked all existing free members to upgrade to a pro-account else their files will be removed permanently.

Obviously, old MediaMax customers like Poonam and Dr. Mike aren’t happy because their own data is locked by another company – the files will be lost forever unless they pay. Scary situation indeed.

Related: Never Backup Data on a Web Hosting Server