Backing up your website is one of the most important tasks, particularly if it is a very active site or you make regular changes to the content.
If anything should happen to the site, through whatever cause, having a recent backup is the only way to restore it to its previous state. Without a backup the only way would be to rebuild the site starting from scratch.
The process of performing a backup is made very easy using the Control Panel.
First login to your account using the Customer Login link at the top right of the page or go to:
Then select Hosting in the Manage Services section, and on the next page click on the Manage link to the right of the domain name to access the Web Hosting Control Panel.
In the Web Files section, click on Backup/Restore.
On the next page you have the option to Create a Backup of Files or Database. We would recommend you backup both if available.
Click on Create Backup and the backup file will then be generated. This might take a few minutes depending on the size of the website. After this you will see a link to Download your backup file. This is a compressed .zip file and clicking on the link will download the file to your computer.
If you have installed a program such as WordPress, an e-commerce package, or any other script which uses a database, it is equally important to make sure that the database is also backed up regularly. If the database should become corrupted, the website will no longer function correctly and the database will have to be restored or rebuilt.
It is hoped that we should never need to use these backup files, but should disaster strike, at least with a backup we have the best chance of being able to quickly and easily restore a website back to functionality.
How often to backup is up to you, but largely should depend on how often the website or its data changes. If you update your site content regularly, you should backup more frequently. Bear in mind that if a website has to be restored using a backup it will only be as current as the date and time of the last backup. How much work or data can you afford to lose?
It is always recommended to make a backup, particularly of the database, before doing any upgrades or installing plug-ins.
