Did Your Site Get Screwed Up?
Posted by Mike | Filed under MiscellaneousI know that you guys sometimes get your site all messed up, screwed and inaccessible (like Chanya from BlogStruk). You often get confused and frustrated before getting everything back to normal again. Unfortunately, there are some occasions when the worst of the worst things happen — you can’t get your site to work fine, and you don’t have recent backups of your content. What can you do?
Lucky you, I’m going to tell you three (3) things that you can do to get your site alive and kicking again.
Obviously, you have no available backups. Check your computer for some of your website’s files.
Who knows? You might have accidentally saved your files on your hard drive before. Search for ‘em, there’s a chance that they’re just covered by some dust! I myself find some really old files of my other sites, so you better check your PCs (or Macs.. or whatever..) now.
If there are no website files in sight on your hard drive, check your floppy disks (Do you still own these stuff?) or flash drives. 
If you can’t find any of your site’s files, contact your web host’s support group. They MIGHT have some backups.
Yeah, they might. Just send them an e-mail or call them. Explain everything from your carelessness to your site’s downfall. I’m sure that they’ll understand and will assist you in getting your site back to normal.
(Why DreamHost? Because it’s one of my personal favorites. 
)
But you know… there are really unlucky people. And if you’re one of them, your host might not have a backup! So what if they don’t have a backup? I can’t believe you’re asking that. The answer is simple, you know… If they don’t have a backup, you’re totally screwed!
Okay. You don’t have your site’s files, neither does your host. You are finally convinced that you are screwed and you have no choice but to start all over again. Right?
Well, not really… there’s still hope! Guess what? It’s GOOGLE TO THE RESCUE! You might ask how a big company like Google can help you. Well, actually, it’s not the company. It’s the search engine! Do you know what to do now? No? I’ll tell you. Search for your website and check for the latest cache of your site. Hopefully, your site is indexed and Google has some of your lost files.
This method is really cool, huh? Well, Google can be your best friend at certain times. 
If you have any tip to add here, please leave a comment. Thanks!
Thanks for the link. More importantly, thanks for the great tips! Honestly, I never thought to ask BlueHost for backup copies of my files. Even though I called them about the CPU error, I never considered asking for backup copies. Fortunately, I had backup copies on my hard drive but as you know, restoring the posts don’t restore the comments!
Also, I NEVER would have thought to search the Google cache.
This is a great post. I just Stumbled and Sphunn it.
You should never rely on your host, Google cache or the luck of finding old files. It’s very important to keep your site backed up especially if it’s a source of income. I use SiteVault and I’m very satisfied. I know it’s a bit expensive ($99) but you can use it for as many sites you wish and the whole process is fully automated.
MIKE:
I’ve been really gun shy about using the standard wordpress plugin because of the problems it caused. Based on your post I checked out SiteVault’s site and it looks very promising. I think I’ll give it a try. In my mind $99 is low for the peace of mind that comes with having your site regularly backed up.
Thanks for the advice.