This is one of THOSE days.
|1.Nov.2008I worked until 5:00 this morning on a client’s design. I do this work on my server, but on a different domain that I dedicate to this purpose. I had TOO MANY windows open on my desktop and so, once the design was in place on her site, and everything checked-out, I started closing windows and deleted (uninstalled) the WordPress I was using.
I THOUGHT I WAS STILL ON MY DESIGN SITE’S CPANEL.
I…er…was in my OWN cPanel; as in my OMSH cPanel. The password was saved in my browser and because it was 5:00 am and I hadn’t yet slept, I allowed the browser to auto-load the username/password without even thinking about it.
As in, nothing clicked.
As in, I didn’t realize that I had just deleted my WHOLE STINKIN’ BLOG.
It took 5 seconds (maybe) before I was miming (because everyone was asleep) this:
And? My 24-hour backup? Somehow it had been disabled on the 18th and was NOT FUNCTIONING.
SO? I’ve lost all posts since October 18. I mean, they are in feedburner and I’m gonna try to work them back in and probably annoy the snot out of all you lovelies who read me, but I NEED MY POSTS FOR PROSPERITY. THIS IS GREAT LITERATURE, y’know?
Okay fine, I’m no Homer, but there are lots of photos, the stories behind the photos and experiences shared. Lots of comments too – I can’t get those back. :( I’m a bit frustrated – no wait…I’m a lot frustrated.
BUT IN LIGHT OF THE WORLD, this is trivial – so, I’m pressing on. IF you have sent me any craft banners (I can think of one in particular.) that are no longer showing on my sidebar, please re-send. And if I had a link up that was very helpful to you, let me know and I’ll try to find it again.
Otherwise, lesson learned.
*sigh*
I’m singing praises to Google Reader right now. I was able to go in and retrieve my full posts (thank the Lord they weren’t set to ‘excerpt’) and re-build what I lost, sans Comments.
20 Comments
Angella
Oh, Heather. I would have screamed. Then probably vomited.
I hope it doesn’t take too long to get what you can…
Elda
This morning I sat down to read my usual blogs (you are among them) and came to an empty OMSH page. Hmmm. I wondered what you were up to.
Sorry to hear that you lost everything. I hope you are able to recuperate everything.
BTW – Are you accepting any new banner for etsy shops?
OMSH
Elda – I only lost posts from October 18th forward, but they were in my Google Reader, so I was able to retrieve them!
Yes, I’m accepting new Etsy banners. :)
They need to be 125×125 .gif or .jpg files.
Natalie
I offer my sincerest and deepest heartfelt sympathy. These are the tests that try us. I feel your pain. Seriously. Good luck making everything all better. And thank God you have the sweet skills to know what the heck you are doing!
Natalie
on a lighter note…
My Google Reader is filling up with your posts, and I was thinking *man, she’s hopped up on candies and bogging like crazy!!*
mothergoosemouse
Oh my stinkin’ heck is right. I would’ve lost my mind.
Thanks for the good reminder that backups are our friends.
bethany
ooooooh i feel for you on that one. deleted a whole phpbb install awhile back, with tons of mods, and was trembling until my host was able to retrieve a day-old backup from their server. so glad you got most of it back!
Mrs. Wilson
I came up to an empty OMSH page too! But I figured it was just my browser – I was also wondering why my OMSH thing in my Google Reader all of a sudden said EIGHT!
I’m so sorry. That totally sucks. 5 am will do strange things to the brain!!
bethany actually
Aaaack! Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice! I am glad Google Reader is coming to your rescue in a small way.
Brenda
Yikes, that’s scary. I’d die if I lost my blog. I do keep another online journal and have for almost a decade. There was the Crash of 2004 and all of us lost two months’ worth of entries, which isn’t much in the Grand Scheme, but it was the two months right after I met my sweetie, when I wrote all about falling in love. Heartbreak when I lost those entries! :(
Glad you got all yours back!
brenda @ http://www.engberts-kaya.com
Kate
I wondered why I had a Google Reader full of OMSH posts! So glad you were able to retrieve them!
And go get some sleep! Silly girl…
naomi
a long time ago diary-x (where my very first blog was) died. the person running it had been doing back ups but found that the backups were corrupted along with everything else. funny thing was i was going to download a back up of my blog from the site but hadn’t gotten to it before the great dying. i’d had previous backups but my computer died, so 3 years of my life went missing. it was a very difficult and painful experience.
i feel your pain. i couldn’t recover many of my entries from the public archives. i was very sad.
Kerry
I am so sorry! I feel terrible that while all of this was going on you were also wrestling with my blog. I am glad that you were able to recover most of your lost stuff. Thanks for all the time you put in, and for all that you do to help me out.
Kritter Krit
Oh my gosh, I would’ve screamed. Gagged. Barfed. Clawed frantically at my eyeballs. Seriously, I think I would have gone into some sort of Memories-Lost-Mini-Coma.
I am a technological nitwit, and therefore, cannot converse intelligently on this subject. At all. Basically I have nary a clue what CAN or CAN’T cause a “lost blog” situation. But every time I hear about someone’s blog vanishing (months…years, just gone), I have a little panic attack. I’m on blogger, and I’ve always wondered if I need to do some sort of back-up tape or something for all of my posts. (Not that I know what that entails.)
Amen to what you said: in the Big Picture scheme of things, not life altering. But STILL…the photos, the stories. All those precious memories – I’d be so sad if they were gone.
So glad you got yours back. Hugs and high-fives. =)
KYouell
And here I thought I had just fallen completely behind again. Yay for Google Reader!
That “whole post” vs “excerpt post” thing is sticky for me. I had mine set to whole but then found an aggregator posting my blog so switched to “excerpt.” I definitely see your point about it being a backup though. There have been times that I have read posts that a blogger has deleted because the full thing was in my reader, so I knew that retrieval was possible. How do you feel about aggregators reusing your stuff? And I don’t mean the definition that would include Google Reader. The guy that had my stuff up was an upstart try to be like Technorati and had all my posts there in his database to read.
OMSH
I hate aggregators, but I also truly hate excerpts in my reader. I vacillate. One of these days I’ll decide one way or another, but for now BOY AM I GLAD I HAD IT SET LIKE IT WAS!
Sherilyn
AS a backup for your comments, you could subscribe to your comments. Just in case it happens again…. *sigh* Losing comments… I just can’t imagine!
(Tabitha) From Single to Married
You poor thing! I had a lot of problems transferring my site over to Liquid Web (per your recommendation, btw – so far they’re fantastic) and it was so frustrating!! Finally, with the help of someone who knew what they were doing (not me) it was up and running but it took a while. It’s hard when you put a lot of yourself into it and it means something to you (and your readers)! Good luck getting everything back!
Tabitha @ http://www.fromsingletomarried.com
MichelleB
Glad google reader helped you out!
Ever since my fiance proposed to me with a gorgeous diamond engagement ring from http://www.idonowidont.com I want to start a blog as a bride-to-be.
I would freak out if it suddenly got erased but will keep google reader in mind in case that happens!
My Name is Cat
Ah, computers sometimes a joy and sometimes the bane of my existence.