For anyone who has visited here in the last 24 hours or so I have probably wondered what the heck was going on. Last night my blog acted very strangely as I was saving a post – in fact – it kicked me out and asked me to log in again. Only this time, my blog login seemed to change to a different blog! It was now pointing to Ethan Meleg’s blog and with a generic introduction post. My blog was gone! I don’t think it had anything to do with Ethan specifically. I think it was one of two things; either it was due to my host transitioning me from a temporary server to the production one and something was corrupted or I had been hacked. It completely wiped out my database also storing all the old posts and comments.
Then to top it off, my coppermine gallery completely crashed. It went completely offline, with a friendly notice of “fatal error.” Why do they have to use those words? As if the gallery wasn’t working to begin with wasn’t enough of a hint? A look into the gallery database showed it was empty. 🙁
Trying to get help from tech support on the evening before a holiday isn’t a good situation. But I did get a response around 4 am today and a few replies thereafter but then they stopped. I am thinking – end of shift. So I spent a lot of time digging around where my site was on the old temporary server (more stories on that one!) and found the old databases were still there with all the data in them. After several attempts to restore them, I finally figured out the correct export/import routine and a small miracle happened to make everything work again.
All of this came on the tail end of finally getting my “excessive resources” issue resolved (which had me banished to a temporary server), which I have been working on since June 22. So the picture I am including here represents how I feel like a microscopic dot sometimes working through a maze like this. There is a lot to be said for living a low-tech life. Technology robs us away from spending time with those we love and probably adds as much stress as it adds benefits to our lives.
All very scary when one thinks of the possibility of losing everything! My mantra…. BACKUP…. BACKUP….. BACKUP! I actually bring down my database off my server and have a copy of it for this very purpose. Whether I could ever put all the pieces back together, who knows?! Sorry to hear your “headaches” Mark. ************* Have enjoyed going through your new Macro images in your gallery!
Paul and Judith, yes, I will reveal what happened with the excessive resources. It was that long post that I was typing when this other blog/gallery crash took over. More to come and then I am done with the tech stuff for awhile! 😉
Lovely photo, Mark!
I did happen to drop in on your site the other day when it was pointing to Ethan’s blog — very strange indeed! I’m also curious about the cause of the “excessive resources” error, and then I hope for your sake we don’t have to have these techie discussions again for a long time. 🙂
LOL! I can just see you stalking through the halls of this remote server center, hammer in hand, beads of sweat rolling down your forehead, rumpled wife-beater, and vengeance in your heart!
I know what you mean about the techno stress and the desire to get the site back up before morning. I also know, unfortunately, what it means to loose all of your posts … and not be able to recover them!
So, what was the cause of the ‘excessive resources’?
Lovely cone flower abstract, BTW.
Howard, I can relate to your statements of wanting to stay up until it is fixed. Been there, done that one.
Wren, tried the breathing part – was about to resort to the hammer!
Deep breathing helps. So do hammers, but I doubt you have access to the offending server.
Isn’t it nice we have computers to make our lives easier?
I know what you mean…technostress can be awful. It is a love hate relationship with technology. Worst part is, when you have kids you can’t really start to working on the problem until 9 or 10pm and then it becomes an addiction….you don’t want to go to sleep until the darn thing is fixed, which can take until the wee hours. And all the time you think that if it weren’t for this you could be getting some creative work done. Yup, I know what you mean. Happy 4th.