Primary domain name registration about to expire

[riley454]

I think I have a problem and know I should have acted sooner but didn't. Now I don't know if I'm being unnecessarily worried or if I have a geniune problem and I'd appreciate some advice from someone more experienced.

The simple details are I have a domain for a wordpress site that is due to expire today. I don't wish to renew this domain. It is hosted with HG. I have a second domain that runs a wpress theme that I need to continue to operate and it is a secondary(not sub domain but separate .com) hosted on the same HG account. If the primary domain is deregistered will my 2ndary domain automatically become the primary or will all of its files be removed when the primary domain is delisted?

I can't quite get my head around the file structure on the HG cpanel but it looks like the new domain is in a subfolder of the original domain. That is why I am concerned that if the registrar deletes my primary domain immediately from HG that it will also delete the second domain in the subfolder.

I was going to transfer my 2ndary domain to primary on HG a few weeks ago but not being an expert in this area I sent a ticket to get some clarity on their instructions to make sure I didn't create additional problems by making the change. By the time I got a reply other things in my business were taking priority.

With the advice of this site and others similar I have decided to transfer the hosting of my 2nd domain to site5 (for all the good reasons) and also hoping that they could pull my site files before the primary HG was deregistered. Unfortunately the process takes a bit longer than my expectation of an overnight hit and run.

Apologies if I haven't given sufficient and relevant information but I think my main questions are:
If I don't pay(CrazyDomains) to renew the domain, how soon after the expiry date will the domain be removed from my HG account?
Where I live, if you don't pay a phone or electricity bill you get at least a month before disconnection is threatened. Does the same happen with domain names?
If my primary domain is going to be removed from HG immediately after it expires, what is the best way to make sure the secondary domain and all the content and formatting is not affected?

Let me know if my lack of knowledge has confused you and any further information you may need to help me

[MisterNeutron]

If you don't renew a domain by the expiration date, it quickly becomes available to others, and someone (maybe CrazyDomains) will "park" on it, and redirect it to their own site (think "a bunch of ads"). The only "grace period" involves a few weeks when you can reclaim that domain name by renewing it. This is called the "redemption" period, and it usually costs an extra fee to get your domain back.

As long as your secondary domain is an "addon domain" at HG, I'm pretty sure it will continue to work just fine. But you do need to get it re-designated as your primary domain for HG, so continue down that path.

However, HG support, since the takeover by EIG, has collapsed completely. On their own forum, someone posted that he wouldn't trust HG to change their socks, let alone a domain name. Better idea - find a new web host, and use your remaining domain as the primary on that host. HG will give you a refund for the unused portion of your hosting fee, as long as you go through their cancelation process.

[kpmedia]

You should run away from Hostgator as fast as possible. It's not a case of if you'll have issues, but when. Excellent Hsotgator alternatives include SiteGround, Site5 and Namecheap.

See also: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/editorials...es-eig-pt1.htm

You'll often run into issues by having the main domain not exist, and only use addon domains. It does work well, but when you start to do somewhat more advanced things like SSL or DNS, you'll have a nightmare hosting experience.

In the era of CMS (WordPress, Joomla, etc), addon domains are horrible idea. That was fine in the HTML only days, but is now a ticking time bomb in terms of resource use and security.