Yesterday I Thought I Had Killed Paulgarrigan.com

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For three horrible hours yesterday evening I thought that I’d killed paulgarrigan.com. I faced the possibility that fifteen months of work had been flushed down the toilet – or to be more precise into the cyberspace version of this. The worst thing was that it was my own fault . I’d already given up when somebody else managed to salvage paulgarrigan.com from the mess I’d created.

My Nightmare Changing Web Host

Last Friday I began the process of moving my website across to a new web host. I’ve never done this type of thing before so it came as a relief to find that the new web host would move the website for me. I just gave them the cPanel details and they took care of the rest. It all occurred smoothly, and the website was functioning as normal. The only small annoyance was that a few readers’ comments got lost during the period when my domain name was updating on the name servers.

The real hassle began yesterday when I tried to move middleagedmuaythai over to the new host. This was trickier because even though the website has its own domain name it had been living on wordpress.com. To make matters worse the web host would not be able to do this move for me – alas only one free move per customer. One of the first things that I had to do was to setup a new WordPress installation and this is where the shit hit the fan. I installed it over the paulgarrigan.com installation and for the next three hours this website was no more.

I use the internet a lot so I can kid myself that I’m knowledgeable about the technology. As soon as anything goes wrong though, it feels like I’m dealing with a malevolent piece of alien hardware. The internet had just eaten my website, and my stress levels began to skyrocket. I contacted the web host and tried to explain the situation. They checked and agreed that my original WordPress installation was no more.

The Internet Ate My Website

I spent the next few hours in email exchanges with the web host. It would be at least thirty minutes between emails so I spent a lot of time just starring at my inbox waiting for a response. When I’m feeling really worried about something I don’t want to listen to music or watch TV. I just kept on staring at my computer and torturing myself by visiting the now empty paulgarrigan.com.

The ramifications of my loss were really starting to hit when the web host got back to me saying that he had reinstalled all my old data into the new installation. I could have hugged him. It was so wonderful to see the website up and running again. I never knew how much paulgarrigan.com means to me until I’d faced losing it. Isn’t that always the way.

P.S. I apologise if any comments have gotten lost during the move. Things will be back to normal now.

Published by Paul Garrigan

12 Replies to “Yesterday I Thought I Had Killed Paulgarrigan.com”

  3. Paul I’m glad everything worked out well in the end because I know how scary these type of things can be. Every time I update my version of the Juice it’s heart in the mouth drama for me. The answer is to regularly back up your site which I’m going to do to mine right now as your post has reminded me I haven’t done just that for a long time.

    Reply

  4. Paul, glad to see everything worked out well for you and the site.

    I have blown up and completely destroyed TLoS quite a few times in the last 4 years and I am just like you…sitting, staring and willing it back to life. Hostgator has pulled my arse out of the fire each time thank buddha.

    There are a few plugins out there that are relatively cheap that will clone your whole website including databases and download it to your email or desktop…it might be a good idea to pick one up because for a little bit of money you can have the security of knowing you have the whole thing backed up just in case.

    Reply

    1. Hi Talen, it is actually Hostgator that I’ve moved to – great minds think alike and all that.

      Yep – starring at the screen and willing things better isn’t the most productive use of my time:) I’ll look into obtaining that software you mention

      Reply

  5. To be the dark hourse, my personal opinion is that those person(s) or companies who have a fiscal or historical reliance on web based resources have nobody to blame but themselves for failures to seek professional advice and services to maintain the integrity of their “digital assetts”.

    For what would ultimately amount to pittance compared to your time and stress you could have obtained assistance in migrating your domains, MySql databases and dodgy WordPress code framework and published files.

    Reply

    1. Hi Lloyd, I agree that it would have saved me a great deal of stress if I’d given the job to a professional. When I looked at the instructions for what to do it all seemed straightforward. Maybe I’ll be a bit more hesitant to take on such projects in the future.

      Reply

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