A lesson learned

[Jaiem]

Going by a discussion on another site, always keep your own backups, off server, of any critical files and/or data.

Don't count on being able to retrieve it from the host's server!

[Curtis Stevens]

Just keep the copy of files you upload to the server, don't delete it off your hard drive and back up your hard drive every so often. You might also want to get an external hard drive that way you can put your hard drive in a safe, so if your house ever catches on fire, you can just buy a new computer and be all back in business (If you copy your entire drive).

[Mr Chunder]

I don't think that this can be emphasised enough -

BACKUP YOUR FILES GODDAMIT !


A business WILL go under if files are not backed-up. Not much different for an individual who loses his/her website. I would be suicidal if all my work was lost because I failed to back-up.

Ideally, version control should be applied to files i.e. local development server should be used separate from the host. Any new development can be tested locally and then when fine, uploaded to the live site.

The local PC should be backed-up to tape or similar device or, if you kind find one to trust, a backup service on the internet.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASSUME THAT YOUR HOST COULD DISAPPEAR TOMMORROW and therefore, that you are in a position re-upload your site to a new server.

btw, when I say disappear, I don't mean that hosts disappear overnight, I mean for cases when their server fails and the backup may not be good or, you may get into a situation when you want to quit your host but you do not get a chance to copy your files. Ok, it is possible that a hosting company could close overnight but with any IT system, backups are always done.

[Phoenix]

Reason #1,342 for always having a backup of your web site's files:

Mistakes happen, it's possible to screw things up when uploading changes to your site. If you don't have a backup, how are you going to fix it?

I've made my share of stupid mistakes when FTPing changes-especially if it is the wee hours of the morning and I've been working on the new content for hours and hours. If the files on my site were the only copies, I would have been totally f**ked.

I have always kept my original files on my hard drive, a backup on removable media (a floppy in the old days, now Zip disk) and the files on my site are just copies.