Help! I Lost Everything I Spent Days Doing

I hope someone out there can help me. I am not computer savvy so I had someone build my store for me. I spent days trying to figure out how to do things. Tonight I was trying to figure out how to change the Page 2, 3 & 4 to actual page titles. I was looking through the cPanel and I hit something, but not sure what I did ... I lost everything (I hope not). My store went from purple and white to green and white and it's saying to me, "Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart E-Commerce Solution." I am about to cry because I don't know how to get my store back and everyting I did. Someone ... please help. Thank you!!

OK, I looked at my cPanel and it looks like my settings are still there ... my tax settings, etc. It looks like I still have my categories and products, although they are not showing up on the "new green store." I did loose my information on the home page and the Pages 2-4 though (unless my old store is hidden somewhere in the cPanel). Please someone tell me how I can get my old store back.

HARMysticAura:

OK, I looked at my cPanel and it looks like my settings are still there ... my tax settings, etc. It looks like I still have my categories and products, although they are not showing up on the "new green store." I did loose my information on the home page and the Pages 2-4 though (unless my old store is hidden somewhere in the cPanel). Please someone tell me how I can get my old store back.

I'm afraid what I'm going to tell you isn't what you are wanting to hear. Unless you had made a backup of your files, and assuming you did actually delete some of them, then they are gone forever. You'll need to redo them from scratch.

You'll find all your settings and so forth are still intact because these are stored in a MySQL database, and it is virtually impossible to damage these via cPanel.

Now having said that, things may not be quite as bad as it 1st appears. It seems that your store is still up and running, this suggests that you probably didn't delete any 'important' files, and I'll even go as far to suggest that you may simply have deleted one (or more) of the custom/override folders. If this is the case, you'll still need to recreate what you have deleted, but you won't have the same hassles that you would have had if you managed to delete the core files.

I sympathise with your loss, but if its of any consolation, you are not the 1st person to do this. you won't be the last, but hopefully you'll learn a very valuable lesson.. Backup, backup, and backup...

Again, I apologise for not being able to give you better news.

Cheers
Rod

HARMysticAura:

OK, I looked at my cPanel and it looks like my settings are still there ... my tax settings, etc. It looks like I still have my categories and products, although they are not showing up on the "new green store." I did loose my information on the home page and the Pages 2-4 though (unless my old store is hidden somewhere in the cPanel). Please someone tell me how I can get my old store back.

Were you definitely in CPANEL? Opposed to your store admin panel I mean? I ask because you mention your tax settings are in place, how did you see this in cpanel?

Are you sure you didn't just switch templates to classic (green and white)? admin/tools/template selection then edit.
Can you post a link to your store (NOT your admin area).

Thank you ALL so much for your help!! You are wonderful!! Sorry it took me so long to reply, I lost my Internet for a few hours (it was just past 4 AM when it went down), so I rested for a few hours and then came to see if I had any responses.

RodG, I know that the server does an auto-backup daily but the backup was right after I hit the wrong thing. However, when you mentioned backing things up and I read somewhere (while waiting for a reply) that the hosting service had restored someone's site, I called them. The man I spoke with told me I can do my own backups as well. He showed me where and how. I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned for me to back things up. :)

Pacandnix, yes, I was in the admin area. I thought that was called a cPanel. The admin area saved all my changes, thankfully, and I now have my original template back and all the work I had done. When it changed back, I didn't loose my pages. :) Now all I have to do is figure out how to change the "Page 2," "Page 3" and "Page 4" to their actual link titles. Have any suggestions on where to go and how to do that? It doesn't tell me where to go on the edit pages (define pages) section.

Wow, I have alot to learn, but I am going to make a go of this store and my main website. Once my dear friend finishes updating and then uploading the new look to that website I will attach the store to it. It's stand-alone right now. Circumstance warranted that I turn my hobbie into a job, hence the update of the original site and the adding of the store. But that's okay ... I always wanted to have my own business.

Pacandnix, you asked for a link to the store. Here is the link: http://www.har-meta-store.com/.

Again, I want to thank you all for your help and support. I will get the hang of how to do all this!!

Phew that's great news :-)
a similar issue just today actually 're page 2, 3, 4 see post 3
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?204077-Adding-sliding-banner-to-a-define-pages-Possible&p=1173689#post1173689

p.s
Cpanel is the control panel of your web hosting account, whereas your admin area is just the admin area of your store, Cpanel is used to manage ALL files/sites you load to the internet i.e a blog or perhaps a website to show holiday snaps right up to massive multi national mega site. Anyway you get my drift :-)

It looks like I'm not the only one that is having issues. Makes me feel better ... I am so embarrassed that I have to ask all these questions.

I still couldn't find the the /includes/languages/ directory and spent hours looking through the Zen Cart admin. I called my host provider to ask a question and told them that I was looking for this directory and they said it was on their server and not in Zen Cart. They talked me through finding where the links are. Success!! I am so excited now.

Thank you once again for all your help. :)

HARMysticAura:

RodG, I know that the server does an auto-backup daily but the backup was right after I hit the wrong thing. However, when you mentioned backing things up and I read somewhere (while waiting for a reply) that the hosting service had restored someone's site, I called them. The man I spoke with told me I can do my own backups as well. He showed me where and how. I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned for me to back things up. :)

Seems like you have all good news today... This is the kind of situation when I'm more than happy to be wrong. :)

On the subject of backups though (in time you'll get sick of hearing this), but there are several things you need to know about backups.

Firstly and most importantly, never ever depend on your host having a backup for you. Although all good hosts will backup all their server files on a regular basis, they do so to protect themselves and not for the benefit of their customers. Some hosts will charge a small fortune if you ask them to restore your site from one of their backups. Be warned.

Secondly, always do your own backups before making any changes of significance... Doing so assures you of two things. 1) That you'll never need to use it <g>, and 2) If you do mess something up it is often far quicker to simply restore the file(s) and restart than it is to try to backtrack any changes that you may have made.

The 3rd most important thing, and sadly, the one that most people neglect... CHECK your backups to ensure they are valid, and PRACTICE restoring from a backup. Even if this means intentionally breaking something. There is nothing worse than having a site backup if you don't know how to restore from it. A common mistake is to learn how to do this only when needed, but when that time comes you'll be so flustered and frustrated you could actually make things worse rather than better.

My final comment is, if there is anything you can be sure of in this world, sooner or later the server will crash and/or you'll find some other way of corrupting or losing data. It is never a matter of if, it is always a matter of when, and I can assure you, it will never ever be at a convenient time.

Cheers
Rod

Yes, it was a really wonderful day. Not only did the store get restored to where it was before, I was able to figure out some other things. I'm slow, but it's getting done. And hopefully my store will do well, as since I've been unemployed for three years (and to "over qualified" or made to much previously), I am going to make a go of this.

Very good advice, RodG. I did run a backup this afternoon ... took hours but it will be worth if one day.

RodG and Pacandnix, thank you both. I wish you both, and all on this form, a wonderful Christmas and a New Year that will bring you all your hearts desires.

Merry Christmas to you too.