Tag: backup

When did you last back up your blog?

button-2076_640 pixabayThe answer may not be ‘never’ of course, although I’m as guilty as everyone for panicing when it’s too late. But if you have a WordPress site you may have used their handy little ‘export’ function assiduously, under the impression that your site would be instantly restorable if necessary. Unfortunately the download this creates, sitting smugly in the Cloud somewhere, will have a few details missing.

If you are a whizz with databases and FTP clients, the most comprehensive way to back up a WordPress site is with the free plug-in WordPress Duplicator but if your dashboard is as far as you want to go into the engine room, here’s a quick, easy way to cheat. We’re going to use screenprints to capture all the bits your exported file will have missed. Continue reading “When did you last back up your blog?”

Backing Up Your Digital Media

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Fried to a crisp….

One of my first jobs that didn’t require asking, “would you like fries with that?” was as a computer operator for a bank. I know, you kids say “everyone operates a computer, what does that even mean?” This was in ancient times (roughly eleventy-bazillion years ago) when to actually touch a computer you had to clear two (sometimes three) levels of security to get into a large air conditioned room where only very special people were allowed. (I’m ignoring the fact that most of these VSPs knew how to ask if you’d like fries twenty different ways.)

I dealt with a lot of data backups in that job where losing everything would cost someone a lot more money than I had. I figured out a few rules about backups and what was really needed if you truly care about not losing your data. Continue reading “Backing Up Your Digital Media”

Good Night, Irene.

Okay, I’ve seen this post a hundred times and I always said, “It’ll never happen to me.” Well, it did. What a feeling … and it is not good.

The computer glowed as I headed out to do some stuff. As usual, I waved goodbye to my electronic friend and off I went. Meanwhile, while I was out enjoying a Friday afternoon in Coral Gables, meeting a friend for happy hour, my computer decides to have its own kind of happy hour.

On arrival back at the homestead, I saw the blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. Ah—no problem, I thought. This has happened to me a million times. Punching the button, I sat back, waiting for the monster to awaken from its sleep. Nothing—after a few minutes, all I saw was a black screen with that damned cursor blinking at me from the upper left hand corner. Continue reading “Good Night, Irene.”