cataclysmic system crash...

[b6gm6n]

(no, that isn't a band name)...

The host my gallery was on had a power failure... they restored power, but my entire site had vanished!... after allot of emails and finding out what was going on (still don't really know but i have an idea) i got my site back...

Minus 5 gigs worth of /gallery/ directory
(the host is still looking)...IMO, after this host sold sold allot of his accounts in the US to an American run company...i was seemingly forgotten...when the crash happened the gallery/site was on this 'blackout' server... which was restored they say... but they could not find my details... (and i couldn't find my site) needless to say i was gutted... when they did find it, it was almost everything, just the main gallery dir was empty...bizarre!...

seems to me at the very last moment after they realized my account was lost somehow, a new one was created for me (empty of course) then a cpanel to cpanel transfer was initiated i believe...but I've been told they time out on anything over 5 gigs... I've heard nothing back from these hosts yet... im waiting & hoping... Seems all very strange to me...

Anyways BACKUP?... yeah from 2004 - i have backed up what the host has recovered thus far and im waiting (fingers crossed for the rest)...

Now my Forums and another PP installation is intact as are the databases... (which was backed up automagically via cron just 11 minutes before the blackout)...

Now this is my worst case scenario... The old backup i have wasn't integrated with vB but rather Invision Power Board in 2004...

This is what i plan to do...(tell me if this is right or miss something)

Install fresh database, insert old gallery backup data, upload the old gallery files (this will be treated by me as a fresh install...no integration) and alter the database to allow myself access as administrator... then see if it 'works' fiddle and play until sorted then upgrade to latest version of photopost (this older PP was before the /thumbs/mini/ structure, etc etc etc) see if that works... fiddle and play... then setup integration back into my existing current vB and match the user IDs with various tools, scripts and allot of waiting...

Then merge the working gallery database into my existing database to keep things clean and running better...

What do you think?... sounds ok?

Needless to say the words BACKUP and IDIOT will be forever ingrained in my psych!

-b6

[Chuck S]

Yes that might work as long as you catch all steps and deal with each individual issue on its own. There are threads here on switch integration where I outline the steps you need to do