We’ve all done it. We’ve all had the best of intentions to backup our sites, our hard drives, etc. And of course, we don’t do it for months on end, and then you’ve got a crash and lost a lot of hard work.

I was VERY fortunate that I was able to recover all of my databases and themes for my websites. I however, I was really really stressed out for several days because I didn’t know if my last minute backups worked, if they were corrupted by the hackers . . . I just didn’t know if I’d be able to recover anything.

Loyal readers will remember that I had a big computer crash a month or so ago, and I lost months worth of data. It’s obvious that I need a system here, and I’ve been meaning to set up something for about a year. Finally, I’ve been hit over the head enough times that I’ve actually started to back things up.

The most important backup (in my opinion) is your computer backup, because you can backup your websites all you want, but if you don’t have a backup of your computer and your computer crashes, then you’ve lost your website backups too. Backing up your hard drive can be tedious and annoying.

However, I found an article on one of my favorite sites (Lifehacker) that has revolutionized my back up system. Previously I always backed up on occasion to DVDs, and every once and a while to my external hard drive. But then I read “Automatically Back Up Your Hard Drive.” I’m not even going to try to explain the system because the article is so user-friendly. Just go read it. I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks (I actually started it 2 days before the server was hacked, so my backups were helpful in restoring my sites), and this system is great. It sets up nightly, weekly, and monthly backups that are automated. You don’t even have to be at home! And if something goes wrong with the backup, it sends you an email with a detailed report. How amazing?!

So now that I’ve got a great backup system for my hard drive, I can feel safe in backing up my sites. What’s the best method for backing up a WordPress install? You don’t actually need to save all the files on your site. For a WordPress install, it’s actually best NOT to save all the php files. If something goes wrong, then you’ll be saving all the errors (or hacked code, as the case may be). The things that are important are your wp-content folder and your database. If you do a database backup (there is a GREAT plugin for WordPress that allows for one click backups . . . super easy to use), then you’ll have all your posts, pages, settings, user accounts, etc. All that’s left is your design. Your wp-content folder holds all your themes and plugins. If you backup your database and your wp-content, then you could theoretically completely erase your WordPress install and start from scratch. You would do a brand new install of WordPress, then restore the database from your backup and upload the wp-content folder, and it would be like nothing ever changed! This only works if you’re restoring to the same domain that you had initially had the site. If you want to change domains (or even subdomains), then there is another process. But this is EXCELLENT for backups.

Another big backup that I always worry about is my email and my bookmarks within my browser. If you’re using Firefox and/or Thunderbird, this backup is a cinch too! There’s a great program called MozBackup that will back up your profile and all your data for you. It’s pretty much a one click backup, and this program will also restore your backup. I’ve done this MANY TIMES to switch computers, restore after a crash, etc. This is great backup tool as well.

I’ve actually posted a guest post over at Recommended about backing up too (I made that post while I was unable to post over here, before the restore).

What do you do to backup your data? Any great tips you want to share with readers?

Update: Well, the unthinkable happened. Not only do I use my external hard drive for backups, but also for storing alllllll my digital photos. And after 2.5 years of hard work, my drive has died. Now I have to spend more than $200 to try and recover my data because I didn’t think to KEEP A SECOND COPY!!! Make a DVD or something with any files that you don’t have stored elsewhere . . . sigh, you think I’d learn . . .

It occured to me that in all my panic about my old computer crashing, I never posted about my new computer!

As many of you know, I went to undergraduate school at Wake Forest University, and they are nationally known for their excellent technology program, particularly for the fact that upon entering the school, every student and faculty member receive an IBM ThinkPad. Upon entering their junior year, all the students trade in their ThinkPad for a newer model, and when they graduate, they get to take it with them.

I recently started graduate school at the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest. The majority of the people in my program went to Wake Forest undergrad, and when we were told we would be receiving a new computer upon entering this program, we all assumed we were getting the newest ThinkPad.

Not so.

Day one of orientation, and the IT department rolls in with these babies.

It’s a Convertible Notebook, which basically means it’s a laptop, but if you swivel the screen around, it’s a tablet. It’s pretty cool. So far the tablet has been useful for taking notes in class, especially in classes like accounting where I have to draw graphs from time to time.

It’s also a fast little bugger - waaaaaaaay faster than the ThinkPad. That makes me happy, because I HATED how slow that computer was. From day one it was slow.

Downside - there’s a ton of stuff running in the background. It doesn’t run on regular Windows XP Professional or Home or anything . . . it has it’s own XP Tablet Edition, which means there are some additional software features that are running on the computer that area always running.

I haven’t fully decided if I like it or not. There are a lot of features that I do like (the graphics card is pretty decent, and I LOVE the widescreen monitor - that is something I will never go back from), but it is kind of funny to get used to it. Plus, I couldn’t get too excited about it at first because I was so bummed about the crash of the old computer.

So, that’s my newest toy. Does anyone else have a tablet (of any kind)? Any tips or horror stories?

Thirteen Things about LINDSEY

DON’T FORGET!!! Please sponsor me for Blogathon 2006 - I’m blogging for breast cancer!!!

1. I had an amazing T13 of quizzes all ready to go on my computer for last week . . . until the crash. So last week’s T13 didn’t happen. Apologies. Please love me anyways.

2. Oh the crash. Here’s the deal. For that graduate program that I started last week (seems like last year), we get new computers. As you know, I went to undergrad at Wake Forest, and all the students receive laptops. Well, Wake Forest graduate students get the same deal, though the computers are very different (more on that in a minute). I was excited to get a new computer, blah blah, the first thing I did when I got home was start working on transferring.

3. Get the computer home, install all the programs on it, transfer my email and Firefox settings. All that’s left is my actual files - Word documents, pictures, all the files from MagicMouth, the things I’ve been working on for my website, etc. A total of many many GBs. Big transfer.

4. I decide that life will be easier if instead of saving to DVDs or my external hard drive that I just take the hard drive out of my old computer and with a USB connect it to the new computer and just directly transfer the files. I’ve done this before, so I’m not too worried.

5. I hook it up to the new computer, and it doesn’t recognize the drive. At this point, I’m mildly annoyed. I’m gonna have to do this the hard way. I put the hard drive back into the old computer.

6. OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND

7. I panic. I try absolutely everything I can think of to get the stupid thing to work. I take it in to the IT dept at school, and they try everything that they can think of. The drive is corrupt, completely unrestorable, crashing other computers . . . it’s dead.

8. So they say they’ll get me a new drive, but that doesn’t restore any of my data. My data is gone.

9. Luckily, I have a backup from May back when the thing crashed before (they think the problems were related), so I have a partial backup. Lost some files for the company and for my websites, so that super sucks, but other than that, I can manage.

10. So that’s what I’ve been up to. Trying to rebuild. And get acclimated into this program - it’s the hardest school I’ve had in my life. You’ll hear more this weekend.

11. Don’t forget to stop by on Friday for the Blog Tour of Homes, and this weekend please sponsor me for Blogathon 2006 - I’m blogging for breast cancer!!!

12.

13. This is too good to pass up. I’ve been playing The Game for about 2 years now, and I come to find that it’s on Wikipedia. Priceless. Also check out www.losethegame.com. Add yourself to the family tree - just remember: your birthday is when you found out about the game, not your actual birthday. Enjoy ;-)!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Leave me a comment and I’ll give you a shout out!

I was going to post tonight about the first day of grad school and the new computer and everything, but that will have to wait. I feel like I am going to be sick to my stomach.

My old computer died. Operating system not found. And I hadn’t transferred ANY of my files. All my Word documents, all my music, all my website files, all my pictures, all the foundational work for MagicMouth? Unless IS can recover my harddrive tomorrow, it’s alllllllll gone.

Years of work gone.

Please pray that a miracle happens and I can recover some of it . . .