On one rainy afternoon in April all of my sites went down. I soon heard the terrible news... the server had crashed and wouldn't reboot. That night Murphy's Law came into effect, and the server remained down until a new and empty drive was installed the morning after. From that morning on, I was told I was on my own. The following is what I learned from this experience.

1. Back ups are lifesavers, if done correctly

I had fairly recent or full back ups (on my PC and CD-RW) of all the sites I've designed, a handful of which belong to clients and not myself.

I ended up reworking a few recent changes, like content deletions I had made in the weeks prior.

There were glitches, despite all of my precautions. For example, I had depended solely on CPANEL for my forum database backup. Apparently the database had grown so large that when downloading the daily back up some of the database had been cut off. Large pieces of the forum database were lost.

Now I know to back up in multiple forms, like:

a) Structure only and data only.

Tip: Prune the data regularly to avoid mega-sizing your databases.

b) Compressed and not compressed.

c) Software/browser back up and CPANEL back up.

d) Table-specific back ups on larger databases (especially for USERS table!)

e) Saved files (incl. install files) for software, mods, and scripts that you use, including their MySQL and Admin username/passwords.

f) Full site back ups and home directory back ups.

Since the crash I keep all the above back ups, almost in an obsessive compulsive way. It may sound like a bit much, but you can create a back up schedule that's near foolproof and bandwidth frugal. You won't need to back up in every single way, every single day. Each site will have different needs when it comes to backups.

2. Not everyone backs up!?!

It's true that webhosts back up their drives, usually every night. However, in our server nightmare, their back up was corrupted by an employee of a company they outsource to. The poor fellow ended up shattering that server-backup, which a few unfortunate webmasters had been counting on.

As long as you're planning on having a website presence, it's almost guaranteed that at some point you will have a server crash. Get in the "safe keeping" habit, before it's too late and you end up missing your site(s), or having forty angry clients calling you and demanding their (forever lost!) websites be "up and running pronto!"

3. Spread your sites out on more than one webhost

I heard Jodie Lynn (http://www.parenttoparent.com/) recommend this on WAHM Talk Radio (http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/), but I put it off. It would have been a little less stressful if only half of the sites I manage went down with that crash. I've finally listened to Jodie's advice.

4. When it happens, stay calm

Our websites were down for 12-24 hours, and in a few cases 36 hours as I moved some sites to a different host. I worried about my regular site visitors, Google ranking, Adsense, and the long haul of getting it all pieced together again.

The Aftermath:

-My forum regulars weren't lost for long, and having a fresh install wasn't so bad. Obviously any search engine traffic and earnings from forum pages were cut of temporarily.

-My ranking didn't budge at all. Spare the unlikely chance you crash during a major Google update, and can't get your site back online before it's done, your site rank should be OK too.

-My Adsense revenue did go down, but it wasn't a total bust. The month before the crash I had an increase in Adsense revenue, and for a month or so after the crash that increase had reverted back to the old normal with a few pathetic days mixed in.

Final Thoughts

The best thing you can do when your server crashes is stay calm. Likely, despite your best efforts, you will need to tweak programs here and there and put that thinking cap to good use.

I had to step away from the computer for a couple hours to catch my breath and pray in the name of [mankinds Saviour] Christ that it would work out. After praying to God I had a sense of peace as I started reconstructing the websites.

The crash, or more so the actions I had to take afterward, actually increased my confidence in my own God-given abilities. I had a list of items to restore and/or fix, and with each cross out my mood improved. I also gained the knowledge to make sure a system restore would flow easier if it happens again. The day after the crash ended up being a highlight of that month, like a kid striking out at bat every inning and than hitting a homer in the bottom of the 9th. The dreaded "server crash" wasn't so dreadful after all.