How to do backups

I read the tutorials but I don't understand anything and Dreamhost is not responding to my desperate support mail.

I accidently deleted one of my files about 2 days ago. I do have a backup but it lists only 73 members and my current file is 83 members so I'd thought I'll be a but independent and go retreive a back up myself.

I don't understand the 'snapshots' section. How do we do this? and from where?

There is a hidden directory called .snapshot, so it would be something like this: /home/username/.snapshot

In there, you will see other folders with your backup files.

I'm not sure which tutorials you read, but this page pretty much explains it.

Can I view this .snapshot when I am transferring files via FTP?

I am using CuteFTP at the moment and I see nothing :P

it's a hidden directory so you won't see it in the list. However if you just type in the folder name and press enter then you'll be able to see it's contense. So, after you log in, there's often a bar above the remote server's file/directory list that shows what directory you're in. Just click there and type in .snapshot/ and press enter.



-Matttail

Oh wow! lol. This is so cool! :D Thanks for your help Mattail :)

Does it have backups on sql stuff too? :D

I use SmartFTP, and the .snapshot folder isn't visible either (despite having it display hidden folders). Almost all FTP software provides a place you can enter FTP commands (with SmartFTP, it is called the Command Line). To access your hidden folder, make sure you are in your parent folder (the one that contains your domain folder or folders) and then type the command cd .snapshot. Everything you are looking for will appear.

nop, no sql backups. Dreamhost does keep backups, but they're not accessble by you. Should you need one, you should be able to contact support and ask that they restore it for you.



-Matttail

Beware of that. When I requested a DH restore, they did a plain copy to the live mailserver directory ending up with a corrupt mailbox/

Out of curiosity, are these snapshots complete snapshots of the site at that time? For example, if my site is 5GB, then is each snapshot 5GB? That would be a lot of disk space - with two hourly, two daily, and two weekly snapshots, that would be a total of 30GB of snapshots.