Database Lost

[stuartjrobinson]

After suspending orders for a week, I thought I’d check into the office to find that the laptop and the backup hard drive have both been damaged by a water.

We’ve had the laptop and the backup hard drive checked out and the backup drive is totally goosed.

The laptop motherboard has gone and the hard drive from the laptop is being sent away to a specialist to see if the data can be retrieved although they think it’s doubtful.

It looks like we’re going to have to re-build the website from scratch.

The problem right now is the website is set to ONLINE ORDERING SUSPENDED. We don’t need to make any changes to the website and so rebuilding the website can be done over a few months. BUT, in a matter of weeks we will need to ALLOW ONLINE ORDERS.

Question - Without using “Publish to Web” (which would presumably overwrite the website), is there a way to allow online orders? Possibly from the Plesk Control Panel (hosting with Sellerdeck).

(I wanted to start this topic in Application Issues>Backup and Recovery but can’t start a new topic in that forum.)

[TJWM]

As far as I’m aware there is nothing you can do until you have a working site again.

Do you not keep backups anywhere else? We have an online backup. Another PC always ready to go with sites loaded in about 10 miles away. We also have usb sticks in several locations away from the business. Do you recall ever backing up to another medium? Have you sent a snapshot to a developer etc?

as long as you can get a copy of a snapshot most of the work is done.

[brucet]

Unfortunately there isn't a switch that you can throw online to re-enable ordering. When ordering is suspended, the product pages are uploaded with no 'add to cart' button. Also the cart and checkout are disabled. To reinstate everything, the pages have to be regenerated with ordering enabled, and re-uploaded from the desktop.

[stuartjrobinson]

Thanks. The situation is pretty much as I thought.
As for backups, normally the backup drive is kept in the office and the laptop is taken away at the end of each day.
The laptop was left in the office - why did I do that?!?! From now on, cloud backup.

I'm also waiting for a reply from Sellerdeck to see if they have a snapshot of the original site as they built it for us in 2015. No order history but at least we would have the majority of the website. Fingers crossed.

[brucet]

Btw what you can recover from the website, if you don't have them elsewhere, is the product images. You can download them using any FTP client.

If you have a list of products and prices that you could get into CSV format, you can import those that way. File > Import > 'Flat File Import', then follow the wizard to map the fields in the import file to the product fields in Desktop. Then you can drag them into sections and link the images. Add your company logo and other details, and use the Sellerdeck default theme to begin with - maybe change the colours to your own (Design > Themes > Advanced Themes Configuration > Colour Schemes). (Sorry if only I'm telling you stuff you already know).

That would at least enable you to start taking orders reasonably quickly, while you work on restoring the design and anything else that's missing.

[stuartjrobinson]

Thanks Bruce,

That's useful to know. Hopefully, it will only be as a last resort.

[stuartjrobinson]

UPDATE:

After an expensive data recovery, we've got the ActinicCatalog.mdb file back! And it's totally up to date!

I have pulled all the image files from the website using an FTP client.
I have checked and rectified the path to all image files in the database.

I have installed Sellerdeck 16.0.6 but the database refers to 16.0.1 in places - Does that matter?

I presume I can just make sure the recovered database is in Site 1 folder and then start Sellerdeck. Is that right?

[Buzby]

If it was me I would use the same version that you had to limit the chances of additional problems.

historic versions can be downloaded from here http://portal.sellerdeck.co.uk/index...tegory/archive


Good luck

[stuartjrobinson]

Thanks Buzby,

I've tried to install Sellerdeck version 16.0.1 but it won't install - There's an issue with an installation prerequisite, MSXML 4.0 Parser SP3. Version 4.30.2117.0 is trying to install but apparently it's not compatible with Windows 10.

So, I've gone ahead with installing and using Sellerdeck version 16.0.6. which very nearly works! Everything on the desktop seems OK but I get an error message when I Publish to Web.


I click on OK and the upload continues until it hangs at "Calculating file checksums".


I've waited for an hour to see what happens but I end up pressing Cancel.

On checking the website, it appears that the website has updated although there are some very minor glitches.

The main issue is that I can't retrieve orders from the website because the site isn't being fully uploaded.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Buzby]

Have you tried a website Purge & Refresh?

If so, then I think it will need the help of others, or Sellerdeck Support.

[stuartjrobinson]

Thanks Jason,

I've tried a website Purge & Refresh but the results are the same. I am at a point where I cannot fix this myself.

Any professional Sellerdeck experts willing to have a go at fixing this database, please contact me. Or anyone from Sellerdeck Support.

[Mike Hughes]

The first things I’d do are:

1. Save a copy of the current database and make a snapshot. Keep them somewhere safe.

2. Have you tried a compact and repair of the database? This usually corrects most database problems.

3. if you can export a snapshot you might find importing it forces sellerdeck to update any version info it’s storing somewhere.

[stuartjrobinson]

Mike Hughes, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Compacting the database worked.

I owe you!

[Mike Hughes]

Great news Stuart. I'm really glad you've got it back up and running.

When I think of all the time and effort that goes into getting a website running the way you want it just the thought of having to do it all again from scratch gives me a headache.