Downloading Site

[Owen]

Hi,

While backing up my files the other day, Nero crashed my computer and all my program files were destroyed.

Including my site snapshots and all other relevant site data, which was being held in the Actinic folder :-(

My question is:

Can I download the site into my brand-new version of Catalog? (And how?).

It is situated at:

http://welsh-products-online.co.uk

Regards,
Owen.

[NormanRouxel]

Afraid not. All you can do is copy and paste the text and prices into newly created products in the fresh Actinic.

If you do a bit of searching you'll unfortunately see lots of similar posts. People who made no backups whatsoever and then discovered that PC's, hard-disks, etc don't work forever.

However in your case it seems somewhat astonishing that a software crash rendered all your data unavailable. It may be worth investigating software tools that can recover corrupted filing systems.

[Mike Hughes]

Ouch.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the actinic catalog database (which contains everything bar the templates) cannot be recreated from the published website.

Your only hope would be an earlier backup or to try and recover the database using some file recovery software.

Mike

Edit: I see Norman beat me to it.

[Owen]

I thought so

I was actually backing up and removing zip files to CD (nothing to do with Actinic), when Nero asked for a second CD.
I put one in, but the program stopped responding.
I waited and waited, then finished the task with Task Manager.
It crashed and would not reboot so I took my laptop to the shop and it came back with none of my old program files whatsoever.
They said it was the best they could do.
Unfortunately, my snapshots and back-ups and everything else to do with Actinic had been saved in the Actinic folder under Program Files, which was scrambled.

Back to the drawing board :-)

Thanks,
Owen.

[delboy]

Owen,

get yourself an Archos 40GB USB2 external HD. So much better than optical which I personally find unreliable and slow (more so if you have a large number of files).

Trouble with compressed backup files is that you never really know if they're 100% good until you really need them - why gamble? Dumping out the whole of your site1 (or the Actinic Ecommerce folder in total) takes from around 30 secs to just a couple of minutes. You can then selectively replace or view these external copies at any time.

Sounds like the shop you took your laptop too reformatted your HD. They should have asked you first.

Delboy

[Owen]

Thanks everyone

You're the second that's suggested an external h/drive, Del.
Sounds like a good idea.

All the best,
Owen.

[NormanRouxel]

It crashed and would not reboot so I took my laptop to the shop and it came back with none of my old program files whatsoever.

These guys did you no favours whatever. Even on a system (including laptops) that won't boot it is quite possible to dump the entire disk to another (via Norton Ghost - booting from a floppy or CD, Austrumi CD with Linux, etc). That way there's some chance of looking at your data on another system.

I'm out in Turkey just now and took a small form factor (shoebox sized) PC out with me. This was still so big it had to travel as checked baggage.

As a mark of how paranoid about data security I am I took its HDD in my hand luggage, another copy of the entire disk on a pocket 40Gb drive and a set of 4 DVD's containing a Norton Ghost image of the whole system.

[pinbrook]

I think Norman and I will have to face it out as to who is the most paranoid about data security and backups.

My daily backup comprises an xcopy of data to external HD and a compressed backup to the same drive. I also then dump and xcopy of all data to my 2nd PC.

Like Norman I also spend periods of time outside the Uk, my preferred method of data transfer is to travel with a notebook and a external HD. And a copy of important data on a webserver too

[wjcampbe]

I'm with you on this Jo. I do the laptop/desktop snapshots, duplicate folder on the main HD, another dup on the external HD, and the Server and lastly a cumulative weekly revolve to Rewritable DVD.

I once lost a whole database programme and have never gone a day without a backup since.