Help Am I screwed

[raphael]

Hi.. I had a full zc installation going at godaddy.com but my account fell behind and they removed all of my files/account. Godaddy stated that they could restore my original site for 150.00 or I could just purchase new site an upload my backed up files in. I restored all of my site files which were backed up on my local drive so site is up and running no. The techs at godaddy recommended that I do a fresh install of zc 1.51 and edit the config files to match the ones from my local drive. My question is this, I do not have a db backup of my catalog, but I basically backed up my entire site via ftp some time ago. Is there a file in there that I can restore my catalog from or do I need to rebuild my catalog from scratch...."I hope not". Any help that you can provide on this would be greatly appreciated....

[stevesh]

If by 'catalog' you mean your categories and products, all that is in the database, not in any file. It's possible GoDaddy could find your old database, but I don't know how much they would want to extort from you to restore it.

If you need to start over, you might want to do so with a better host. Click on 'Services' above for possible options.

[wyldside]

Stevesh is right, the database file is typically stored somewhere like /var/mysql and that is not going to be a part of your backup. Go ahead and pay the extortion fee, then go into your database manager (usually phpmyadmin) and export a copy of it through there.

[Bikerstuff]

Were you using anything like "Easy Populate" to upload products/categories using CVS files?

I am not certain on this, but I would "THINK" if you have a full CVS file of all your products and category listings, then making a new database and importing that CVS would restore everything as it was when the CVS file was made. My thinking is this would only cover products and categories though, maybe not anything else that was stored in the database that was lost.

Like I say, I am not sure, but it worked for me when I just now installed a local PC store to work in.
I exported from the online store I'm trying to setup and imported to the local PC store.

I think something like what has happened is also a good reason for me to keep a local PC store to work in. If I have it set up same as the online store, then if I loose the online store for some reason like you have I could export a CVS from the local PC store.
Or I could possibly just restore the full online store from the local PC store.

I am thinking of running 2 local PC stores myself. 1 I would keep identical to the online store, the other I would work in so if I totally screw it up I still have the first one that would be correct.


How have you liked Godaddy for your store, other than this problem of letting payment fall behind and getting deleted?

I have used Godaddy for many years now, but only to store images and such mostly to link to and static webpages just using HTML.

Since I already have and pay for the hosting, of course at this time I am setting up my store in what I already pay for.

Another thing about Godaddy right now if you go the NEW hosting route staying there.
It's half price for the monthly hosting fee and a free domain name for as long as you pay for when first bought!
I been paying about $9 a month, I just found for NEW hosting I can get the same thing for $4.50 a month and it comes with a free domain name for however long the first term is at purchase. So if I buy new hosting for 3 years it would be the $4.50 a month and the new domain name I need would be free for 3 years also.
Same if I went with say 5 years. If only 1 year, then the same for just 1 year.
That would be a heck of a savings if I stay with them!

I do read comments people don't think very highly of Godaddy though, but I never really see any reason why posted. Why don't people here like them?
I did read one post that mentioned something, but they said it was getting better at that time, and that post was about a year old or so.

I looked at the Hosting services mentioned from this site, linked to. I thought of 2 of those, but not to thrilled with their own sales pages so have my doubts, and they look to be the same exact thing just with a different template color and name. Even what I consider to be errors with links are the same on both.
They may both be great services, I'm not knocking them, but I been a bit turned off for now.
I would like to use one, since it supports Zencart, so I may try one for just 1 or 2 months and see how it goes, and if I like them let that service cancel and buy new for a couple years.

[mc12345678]

Replying (in part) to the usage of EP. It does not currently back up all aspects of the database. Also there is no one single exported file that would address restoration of everything, between attributes, price breaks, and categories, there is a separate file to basically handle each aspect of products. That program does not backup customers, addresses, and other data captured in the database. There are other utilities such as dr byte's backup mysql that can save a copy of the database on the server (or local computer), but that still is a snapshot in time of all things related to the ZC store. Having a backup that is made periodically (off site) is one more of those suggested actions, not just of the data files but also the data.

Whatever is determined to be done, wish the best of luck.