Back up website!

[owas]

Whats the best way to back up a website. Not sure if I should use a feature on the cpanel, to my desktop, or use another service?

 

[Faevilangel]

I would do a Cpanel backup, highlight all the files in the File Manager and then compress them into a zip file, and download it. Much better than relying on a tool to do it right.

 

[owas]

and then if anything happens, is just case of uploading the files back up?

 

[Faevilangel]

and then if anything happens, is just case of uploading the files back up?

Yup, just upload the zip file and click the extract option. It's as simple as that.

Does the website have a database / content management system as that will need to be backed up as well using PHPMyAdmin

 

[chip_y2kuk]

if your provider uses Cpanel

they should/could provide you with a backup option

which tar.gz's all your files,e-mails, SQL databases at the time of backing up

which allows you to move to another Cpanel provider at a moments notice give them the archive and tell them get a move on (it shouldn't take long for most sites) and your details will be setup exactly as they where on your old provider.

if you move to another provider who doesn't use Cpanel then they have to do a bit of hashing and isn't as straight forward but is still completely possible to extract the site and any related databases.

joe

 

[vgregory22]

Cpanel as far as I know would really help..Most people use it.

 

[gavcooper]

Yes the other replies are right, it is best to use your websites cPanel to backup your site. But the problem is you have to remember to regularly access it to make the backup. Plus if you have multiple sites its very time consuming.

We use Backup Smart to regularly backup multiple websites automatically. It's an Adobe Air application so will run on all platforms. All you need is your cPanel login for your websites, then schedule the backups for either daily, weekly, etc and sit back while the application backups your sites automatically. Because they are full cPanel backups they can easily be either partly or fully restored via your website cPanel.

The best thing is the price £30 for full licence (referral link in signature if this information was helpful).

 

[vgregory22]

Yep I agree. Been using it for almost a year now and it never failed me.

 

[ColettePrice]

As a warning, I used to use just the cpanel backup (I was with just host at the time) and, after they upgraded their control panel system, all my databases were empty and my website totally corrupted. I am not sure what happened, but they couldn't even recover an older version from their own backups. Up to that point (after being with them for years) I had never experienced a problem with the host.

To be on the safe side, do a cpanel backup regularly and leave on the server, also backup all your databases and any other files i.e. email forwarders (as the cpanel doesn't do this). Then download copies to your PC, and create a copy on disk. I also use Akeeba backup now which is brilliant as it copies the database files etc. in one go and is easy to re-install.

 

[domains]

Always do 2!

One through your cpanel/whm/host/yadayada!

One automated backup that is offsite!