I've been using hostgator for quite a few years now and never had any serious problems where I lost data.
They did once have a serious hard drive meltdown on the server I was using, but normal service was resumed within 24hours.
They've been fast, reliable and very helpful whenever I've asked questions.
I opted for a reseller package though (not sure how that'll affect bandwidth / transfer rates) but means I can host the 8 or so sites I have without fear of going over bandwidth / space issues. :
And you can SSH!!
Hope that helps