The other day I realized that my blog was not working the way it should have been working - the main page was gone.  Gone, gone, gone.  I thought maybe there was a glitch with a plugin, but I’d not been adding plugins and this was just freakin’ bizarre and so my mind went in 53 different directions on how to fix it.

I tried doing a post - and it didn’t show on the main page.

I went into my CPanel to do a check on the database - and guess what!  I had some nice corrupted files on hand.  So I did a repair and check it.  It showed “OK” but it wasn’t when I went back to check the site.  Then I started not getting my emails.  Now I’m wondering WTF?  So I went into my CPanel again and realized that I had run out of room on my account for space.  So I went and increased it and that seemed to cure the problem with the email but my site was still fubar-ed.  Damn it.

I then realized in my search of weekly backups that probably due to a space issue my backups quit coming in around the middle of November 2007.  I hadn’t been paying attention and it bit me in the ass.

So I went to HostGator - who were FABULOUS! (Thanks Carl!!) and they did a restore on the most recent backup - which I had to pay for.  Not a biggie since my site was borked.    So $15 later I’ve had my site restored.

The main page - still not showing.

So I did a complete wipe of the site - I’m thinking it’s in the tables of the database, I’ve done fix and restore with no success.  I had to bite the bullet and wipe everything and start again.

So I did it - and tried to do a restore on my own but it kept timing out.  So, I contacted HostGator again to see if they could take the backup and reinstall it for this blog.  OOOOH and it looks like it worked.

So what have I learned…

• It took about a week to get my site back up… and it’s still needing a little love in the plugins department - but I’ve got my posts and pages working again…whooohooo!
• Backup, Backup, Backup and keep tabs on the backups coming in.
• Sometimes backups don’t work and you better pray that your hosting company is on the ball with their backups and can help you out.
• I am greatly relieved that I have a rockin’ hosting company - huzzah! - HostGator!

Basically you can’t cover your butt enough with online sites.  You can have backups - but sometimes they don’t work and you’ve got to be hoping that your hosting company has it together enough to help you out.

I did and I’m so freakin’ happy I’ve not lost 3 years of bloggy blogging-ness!

*Deep Breath*

– on a sidenote: Thanks Stu for your comment the other day, the backup wiped it out - but I did get a chance to read it before things were restored