Website Backup recommendations please

[Kerioak]

I urgently need a reliable method of backing up my website after losing four months of work due to Justhost NOT providing the backups they say they do and their recent fiasco. I thought I had everything backed up but have lost four months of work so not happy.

Does anyone know of any good backup services that can be done from site to site - not downloaded to my computer first (or I might as well use external hard drive) that will allow me to see exactly what has been backed up

Size is currently about 45 Gb

 

[Pete Allen]

I've got mine on 2 drives and, backed up on my server.

No real need for any more than that, if all is lost from the service provider, just upload it again.

 

[arad85]

What are you able to run on the webhosting service. Do you have ssh access? Do you have any bandwidth restrictions?

 

[KIPAX]

No real need for any more than that, if all is lost from the service provider, just upload it again.

over 150 thousand pics of mine lost when fotopic went down...lost online.. I had the backups... but still took months to get them all back online for everyone to see or buy

sometimes "just upload it again" isnt all that simple ..

 

[neil_g]

Get a decent host?

 

[Pete Allen]

sometimes "just upload it again" isnt all that simple ..

Yea, good point, I guess it depends how complex your website is.

 

[admirable]

Get a decent host?

^^^^

this!

 

[Kerioak]

I've got mine on 2 drives and, backed up on my server.

No real need for any more than that, if all is lost from the service provider, just upload it again.

I am really looking for something online if possible so I can ftp it

What are you able to run on the webhosting service. Do you have ssh access? Do you have any bandwidth restrictions?

Not sure what you mean about what I am able to run or about ssh access not needed that for so long forgotten how to use it
Bandwith - supposedly unlimited

over 150 thousand pics of mine lost when fotopic went down...lost online.. I had the backups... but still took months to get them all back online for everyone to see or buy

sometimes "just upload it again" isnt all that simple ..

Definitely not simple

Get a decent host?

Thanks, useful !

Yea, good point, I guess it depends how complex your website is.

Fairly complex

^^^^

this!

Again useful ! I am with Justhost (part of Bluehost, Hostmoster) supposedly a decent host

 

[srichards]

If you have cpanel access then that has a backup system. You can set it to FTP elsewhere. Usually you can do it on a per domain basis.

If you have decent cloud hosting you should never lose more than a day or two even if there is a catastrophic failure.

 

[Kerioak]

I am still trying to learn about cloud hosting - all the sites seem to assume you know what they are talking about - as far as I have been concerned a cloud is an insubstantial thing in the sky

 

[theurbanclown]

You dismissed the posts that will help you the most, so I will point it out again.

Get a decent host. That's all you need to do - any half decent host will provide regular backups of your site.

 

[arad85]

Not sure what you mean about what I am able to run or about ssh access not needed that for so long forgotten how to use it

If you don't know what you can do or what access you have, it will be painful to hand roll a site backup. For example, most web services run an SQL database of some sort and you would need to have some way of backing that up if you are trying to roll your own backup solution. I suspect you have breached a threshold whereby your hosting provider has opted you out of backups (45GB is a lot of data!).

If you don't want to go through the hassle of rolling your own, this is probably the best advice, but check the backup policy first

You dismissed the posts that will help you the most, so I will point it out again.

Get a decent host. That's all you need to do - any half decent host will provide regular backups of your site.

 

[dejongj]

As arad85 said, it depends a bit on your access, what platform you are running etc...

For storage, I use Amazon S3 quite a bit.

Just be careful with your first backup and check the conditions of your hosting plan. 45GB is a fair amount of data which could impact your traffic limits. With a decent hosted the backup gets done internally at no cost of external bandwidth..

 

[srichards]

If you have a business level account with your host then having them lie about back ups and not backing up would potentially be something you could sue for the consequential loss. But at the same time if that file is VITAL to your business having a separate back up plan for it, even if it is just the occasional ftp to your local hdd would have prevented the entire issue. Also being able to check the file has been backed up recently would also have prevented it as you would have seen they hadn't done so for ages.

My host supposedly backs up regularly but I have cpanel back up into cloud space too. I use livedrive which I have had for ages but there are times when that doesn't work so I have to make sure there are other methods in place to fill any gaps.

Again a decent host will be happy to prove they can get your information back. Plus if you have cloud hosting theoretically it should be designed in such a way that they can lose hardware and replace it and it won't cause any data loss at all without doing restores from back ups.

What control panel are you using? They will have back ups in there somewhere that you can run separately to anything the host runs to make sure your data is ok.