Database_Table is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed

[vaughan905]

I don't know where to start...

First off, I have been a loyal GoDaddy client for close to 15 years (since 2004). I host my main website with it and several other smaller websites and lots of domains.

The issue: earlier this year, my SQL database started crashing and the cause was often the following:

"Table './DatabasedName/smf_messages' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed"

I would call support and no one was able to help, let alone know what the issue was. There was even a time when I had to pay over $100 to restore from a backup.

Finally, after months of chasing and trying to fix this, I realized what the issue was: my DB size was over 1GB. GoDaddy started sending me warning emails to fix the issue or I would lose access to it etc.But here is the frustrating part: I would go in to try and delete content to bring the DB below 1GB, and after spending hours trying to delete things, it would suddenly crash on me, rendering all my effort useless. Then I would start all over again and the cycle continues till now. 

This is a forum that had over 10,000 members with well over 30,000 page views a day. I have virtually lost it all , because people gave up: every time they visit, they see the same error message, so they gave up hope that this website is ever coming back. 

I am not just disappointed but extremely frustrated at GoDaddy and the way they have treated me during this ordeal. They want me to bring the size below 1GB and when I try to do that, the DB crashes on me. It is one vicious cycle.

Tonight, I was trying to restart working on fixing my DB again and came upon this forum, so I thought let me give it a try, maybe someone will be able to help me recover my forum and some 15 years' worth of content. 

Really appreciate any help you guys can give me? I will never give up on this, including having to leave GoDaddy to find a better host that won't have an issue hosting a 1GB DB. For god's sake, in this age of unlimited everything, GoDaddy is just starting to limit a DB size? 

[JesseW]

HI @vaughan905. Thanks for taking the time to post and for being a customer for so long! I can definitely see how this would be very frustrating for you. Without accessing your account, I wouldn't be able to say what is happening for sure. My recommendation would be to:

• Do a full, local backup of the database. You may not be able to use phpMyAdmin for this if the database is too large. You should be able to connect to the database using a client like MySQL Workbench to do this. It might also help in managing your database edits. You can also try SSH. 
• Try optimizing the database tables. This will remove overhead, which can sometimes take up a lot of space. 
• Simple Machines Forum sometimes has backup database tables. You can try removing these to free up more space. This could even put you under the 1 GB limit. 

Once you do the above, you may be able to do the repair on the table in question. Really hope this helps! 

Just as a side note, we've had the 1 GB limit for a very long time, maybe always. I know it's been at least 10 years. It may change in the future, but my guess is that it won't for a while.