How can I create my own backup of my website?

This option in your cPanel control panel allows you to compress your directories and/or files located in your account. This is an excellent way to backup your own files. It will serve as double protection should anything ever go wrong with our backups. Like any web host we cannot guarantee the quality of our individual backups as these are geared more toward restoring an entire server. We HIGHLY recommend that you make it common practice to backup your own web pages. Although unlikely to be necessary, in the event that we are unable to recover your pages, you will be able to restore your own pages. In your cPanel Control Panel click on Backup then click on Download a Home Directory Backup" This will enable you to download a compressed copy of your web site & its files, email folders, etc. Save the backup file to your own hard drive for safe keeping. If you save a backup only to your web space, not only do you not have a copy of your own to easily upload when you want to restore, but you also will quickly use up a lot of space in your web hosting account. If you are using MySQL databases, don't forget to also make backups of your MySQL databases; this must be done separately (see below).

To create a backup of subdomain settings on your web space, in Backup under Download Alias/Filter Backup click the subdomain settings you want to backup. This will not actually backup the files in the subdomain; to do that you must choose Home Directory Backup which will backup all the files that reside inside your public_html folder, including your subdomain folders.

How can I create a backup of my MySQL database/s?

In your cPanel Control Panel click on Backup then click on Download an SQL Database Backup. Save the backup file/s for each database you are backing up to your own hard drive for safe keeping. If you save only to your web space, not only do you not have a copy of your own but you also will quickly use up a lot of space in your web hosting account.

How do I restore from a backup I made this way of my web site or my MySQL database?

In your cPanel Control Panel click on Backup then choose Restore for whichever type of restore you want to do (Home Backup, SQL Database, or Alias/Filter. Click the Browse button to browse to your backup copy on your own computer's hard drive and select the backup file. Then click Upload.

Can I resore individual files, from any date, from a server backup?

No. These kinds of backups are for entire hosting accounts only and must be done by server admin. Choices of backups to restore are limited to Daily backup, Weekly Backup, and Monthly Backup. Individual files from one of these backups cannot be restored, only the entire hosting account including all addon domains and subdomains etc. Your hosting account (including all addon domains, subdomains, mail accounts, etc.) will be restored to whatever was in your hosting account when the last daily, weekly, or monthly backup was made, depending on your choice.

To request a server backup restoration of your hosting account you must fill out a Support Ticket or email us specifying which backup you would like restored, as well as your domain name and hosting account username.

When I downloaded my backup it came as a .tar.gz or a .tar.tar file. How do I open this so I can select individual files I want to restore on my own via FTP?

If the file came as a .tar.tar, you must rename it to something.tar.gz -- with a .tar.gz extension, not .tar.tar

Then use an unzip program such as WinZip. In such programs you frequently have to go through a few steps to extract the files.

To extract files from a .tar.gz archive using WinZip, follow these steps:

1. Click (or double-click) on the .tar.gz file. This will trigger a popup window asking "Should WinZip decompress it to a temporary file and open it? Click Yes.
2. In the next window, select "Open the archive using the Classic interface.
3. This will bring you to a window with a list of files in it. At the top of the window, click Actions --> Select All.
4. Next click Actions --> Extract
5. In the next screen, browse to where you want to dump the files. We STRONGLY suggest that you choose a folder, then ALSO click the "New folder" icon at the upper right corner of the window. Name your new folder something you will recognize, and write down the location of where you are putting this folder.
6. Now that you have your new folder created, you still have to click on it and make sure the little folder icon appears to be opened up.
7. In the lower part of the window you are in (the "Extract" window), under "Files", select "All files/folders in archive"
8. In the checkbox choices on the lower right of the window, the only box you should check is "Use folder names". Click "Extract". Wait for the little hourglass icon to appear and disappear once or twice -- this may take a few seconds if you have a very large backup file.
9. Close the Extract window. You will be presented with a choice: choose "Next time start WinZip with the Wizard interface.
10. Now you can browse on your computer to where you unzipped your archive. You should see files and folders. The folder containing all your web site files is the public_html folder.