LOST ENTIRE SITE. **UPDATE: BACK UP!**

[Organic Jerk]

This post has no point other than to rant and rave.


I've been working on a site for my cab-in-progress, "Pixel Assault": http://www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/


Up to this morning I had about 15 long and well detailed posts going through EVERYTHING in the procress of creating it, from logo and concept development to cutting the sides.


I login to wordpress and decide to upgrade to the new version. (2.2.1)


The upgrade directions say to delete all files except the ones you've edited.  I feel a bit uneasy doing this, but I do it anyway.  I keep my gallery and theme folder since those are the ones I worked on (as I remember)..


In trying to set up the new version, there seem to be conflicts..  Seems I didn't backup the VERY FIRST file I edited, which is the wp-config.php. file, that was part of the original install.  I am forced to delete the database (which holds ALL MY CONTENT).. I don't feel too bad doing this because I backed up everything into an xml file via the wordpress "backup" option.

 I reinstall wordpress...  set my custom theme up again...


AND I CANT FIND THE DATABASE BACKUP FILE.  I distinctly remember downloading it to specific location with a date-related filename, and now it's nowhere to be found.. I did a search for EVERYTHING on the drive with the .xml filetype and it's nowhere.


So now I'm stuck with a blank site and a GREAT FEELING OF LOSS AND DISDAIN AS I THINK ABOUT WRITING EVERYTHING OVER.


Trust me, I know it's entirely my fault.  I should have kept a text file backup of each and every post in a directory in my HD...  I can;t for the life of me figure out why that database backup JUST DISSAPEARED, though......

WTF

[leapinlew]

can your ISP help?

[BrentRadio]

That sucks!   

[Malenko]

did you search for a .BAK file? its long shot, but cant hurt

[ChadTower]

A quick tip from a professional:

Setting a backup strategy isn't enough.  You have to test your restore process as well.  Without proving your backup is good and you can use it as needed you have no way of knowing that you actually can recover lost data.

[SavannahLion]

Is it possible that WP might not have saved your backup as an XML, even though you specified it? What I mean is, is there a possibility that your file was saved as a .zip, .tar.gz or even without an extension? XML files are on the beefy side and some server side scripts will usually default to compressing backups before sending them.

[Hawk Daddy]

um there is this thing called windows system restore, go back a day or two and your files will be right back in there place.

Hawk

[johnperkins21]

Do a search by date instead of looking for a specific file type/name. SavannahLion might be correct that it's in a different format.

I just checked the wayback machine for you, and didn't find anything.

And for future reference, instead of deleting those files, you may want to just copy them into another directory in case something goes horribly wrong. If the upgrade fails you want to be able to quickly get everything back. No help to you now I know, but you don't want this to happen again.

[Encryptor]

I feel your pain! I used to have a yahoo homepage. One day I went to go to it and it was gone. The whole site wiped out. I started inquiring and reading the fine print here and there and come to find out that if no one visits your site in 6 months or you don't make any changes to it for 3 months they just wipe it out.

Granted I hadn't been there or done any updates for a while but they could have warned me so I could back it up or something. It was just gone. I had it for years. Even before yahoo when it used to be geocities. It does suck!

Encryptor

[leapinlew]

um there is this thing called windows system restore, go back a day or two and your files will be right back in there place.

Hawk

Hawk...

1. He never said he was doing windows
2. System Restore doesn't restore files

[leapinlew]

Is there some website archive/cache that may have all the text?

[Dartful Dodger]

Call your web provider, they may periodically make backups in case they lose a server.  It might be from a couple of months ago, but it could be better than nothing.

Good luck.

[patrickl]

I seccond the search by modify/creation date. If it's on your disk it should be recently modified.

Windows Explorer search has an "When was it modified" option and a Unix clone would have the find command (for instance "find / -mtime 1" for something changed the last 24 hours)

BTW for all these kinds of problems I have the server mirror the websites on another harddisk every evening (apart from regular backups). It's always nice to have a copy of yesterdays file handy. Actually it uses rdiff so the extra disk contains all revisions of over a month I think. I can't remember the day I needed a backup tape. Well I would if the place burned down or the thing got stolen, but other than that.

[saint]

Google Caches:

Google Link

Any help?




edit by moderator: shortened link.  Bad Saint!

[saint]

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:-xxEdsjnbJ4J:www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/%3Fm%3D200609+www.organicperception.com/pixelassault&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:aDg4O1iZv78J:www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/%3Fcat%3D5+www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/%3Fcat%3D5&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

[leapinlew]

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:-xxEdsjnbJ4J:www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/%3Fm%3D200609+www.organicperception.com/pixelassault&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:aDg4O1iZv78J:www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/%3Fcat%3D5+www.organicperception.com/pixelassault/%3Fcat%3D5&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

[Hawk Daddy]

um there is this thing called windows system restore, go back a day or two and your files will be right back in there place.

Hawk

Hawk...

1. He never said he was doing windows
2. System Restore doesn't restore files

If he ask him to delete it then surely it has to be on his pc correct?  Well not entirely true but I know for a fact that my pc's all restore the files as long as they are on the desktop and in the system files, like programs, windows, ect.

Hawk

[patrickl]

Wow Saint, you da man!

[Organic Jerk]

Wow thanks for all the support guys!  You have all really brightened my spirits about this stupid little ordeal..

can your ISP help?

Call your web provider, they may periodically make backups in case they lose a server.  It might be from a couple of months ago, but it could be better than nothing.

Good luck.

I asked them if they can restore it to a past backup.. I guess I'll see what happens.

Setting a backup strategy isn't enough.  You have to test your restore process as well.  Without proving your backup is good and you can use it as needed you have no way of knowing that you actually can recover lost data.

Will definitely be making sure of this with every venture from now on. 

Is it possible that WP might not have saved your backup as an XML, even though you specified it? What I mean is, is there a possibility that your file was saved as a .zip, .tar.gz or even without an extension? XML files are on the beefy side and some server side scripts will usually default to compressing backups before sending them.

Now that I'm back home I'm going to continue looking for it... It's very much possible, so I'm crossing my fingers..

Do a search by date instead of looking for a specific file type/name. SavannahLion might be correct that it's in a different format.

And for future reference, instead of deleting those files, you may want to just copy them into another directory in case something goes horribly wrong. If the upgrade fails you want to be able to quickly get everything back. No help to you now I know, but you don't want this to happen again.

Will do and Will do. 

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:

Thanks a bunch man... I'm copying all that stuff right now.




Thanks for the support, everyone... When I initially realized that I was utterly screwed, I just started laughing at how ridiculously perfect it was... It just made sense that after all that work (and when I was about to start writing a new post after about a month of dormancy), I had to f**k it all up.

[hypernova]

Things could always be worse.  Much worse.

In a truly horrible world, we'd be talking about your cab, and not the website about your cab.

[SavannahLion]

Let us know how it turns out for you.

[Circo]

I have learned the lesson the hard way about backing up your website.  I have lost mine twice due to server issues.  Although it was a good excuse to make the website more appealing as I have learned much over the past couple of years.  The newest version is backed up in two different places constantly.

Best of luck!

[Organic Jerk]

Well, my host was able to restore the site to a backup from a few days ago, so I'm in the clear. 

I have definitely learned some valuable lessons from this, though.  I hate to be in a position to have to depend on someone else for my own data...

Thanks for the support, everyone! 

Things could always be worse.  Much worse.

In a truly horrible world, we'd be talking about your cab, and not the website about your cab.

Yeah... I've already had one cab disaster where I had to start over, so I know what you mean.

Personally, I'd probably feel equally as devastated if one of my art files, such as my CP overlay work, got ruined in some disaster.  I've spent so much time and effort on it, I would definitely be worse for wear.

[Malenko]

what front end is that? I'd love to edit it to suit my cabinet

[Organic Jerk]

It's MaLa (http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/index.html)  with a skin I created for it..

I'm going to be releasing a version of the skin soon