Backup - Urgent

[japan]

Hi :rolleyes: ,

 

Can somebody explain me very simple, like to kid, how can I backup my store. I have read Wiki Docs, and in my Admin help too, but still cannot figure out. I try to make changes in my store but afraid that I`ll mess up again. My host had to reset server once. Thanks for help.

[ozcsys]

Hi :rolleyes: ,

 

Can somebody explain me very simple, like to kid, how can I backup my store. I have read Wiki Docs, and in my Admin help too, but still cannot figure out. I try to make changes in my store but afraid that I`ll mess up again. My host had to reset server once. Thanks for help.

Backing up before making changes is a very good idea, I was not doing so as often as I should and I broke my site bad and lost a weeks work so now I am very careful to back up (maybe too often now).

There are a few different ways you can do this but this is what I have been doing. I have a folder on my hard drive named Site backups and then I make folders under it named by the last change I made such as what contribution I added and the date IE: recover_cart_sales_0205 and then I backup my database in admin/tools and then download the site to the folder using my ftp program. I keep the last 5 changes for now but once I am done with the site I will probably get rid of the extras.

Now I have broadband and I only have 1000 items in my shop so I just download the whole thing but if you are on dialup or have a large shop you could skip your images folder to save time as that is going to suck up the most bandwidth and time.

 

Hope this helps

 

Richard

[Guest]

you would be better off, if you have a live store, to do things a bit differently.

load apache, php and mysql locally on your system, and install oscommerce there. instructions here: http://internetmaster.com/installtutorial/index.htm

 

do the development on your local system. if all is well, ftp to a different folder than your store and test, test test! (use a different database than the live one)

 

once all testing is good, do the final migration to the new store, by backing up the live store (do this late at nite, less people on at that time).

 

This way, you have a live working store and continue to sell while you do your 'development' (adding contributions if that is development) and find out if something works or doesnt work prior to screwing up the live store.