Oops! I Deleted My Webpage!

Did you accidentally delete, or overwrite you webpage, and want to recover what was there? There are several ways of going about it.

Prevention

When you FTP (upload) a file to your website, it will overwrite any file with the same name. So, before you FTP a new file, it's a good idea to keep a backup of the original file. If the new version of the page doesn't work as expected, you can compare it to the old version to troubleshoot, or you can just replace it with the original version of the page.

making backups

It's always a good idea to download a backup of your site, perhaps once a month (more if you frequently make changes). Just download & keep a copy on your computer, or burn it to a disk. It will be there if you ever need it.

Before I make significant changes to a page, I save a copy under another name, perhaps incorporating the date (if it's index.html, maybe save it as index030807.html or index1.html). That way I always have a copy of the page as it existed prior to the changes, in case I ever want to refer to it, go back or run into a problem.

Recovering a Deleted File

Didn't make a backup of your page? All isn't lost; there are several ways to quickly get a deleted page back.

ask your webhost

Most webhosts make automatically make daily, weekly, or monthly backups. Get in touch with yours and ask if it's possible to recover your lost file from one of their backups.

Some hosts charge a fee for retrieval of your files, but many offer it free of charge.

copy your page from Google, MSN or Yahoo's cache

The major search engines keeps ("caches") copies of each page in their index. Once you find your webpage in their cache, scroll down past any Google, Yahoo or MSN code, then find, cut & paste whatever it was you deleted & want back (a few lines of code, or a whole page). Then you can upload the recovered page to your website.

On Google, use this search syntax:
cache:www.example.com
(or whatever the URL is - do not use http://) and view source & follow the instructions above.

On MSN, use this syntax:
url:www.example.com
(do not use http://) then, click the "cached page" link & follow instructions above.

For Yahoo, use the following syntax.
url:http://www.example.com
(you must include http://) then click the "cache" link, view source, & follow instructions above.

check the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive (Archive.org) regularly downloads websites & webpages, in order to keep a document of the internet as it existed in the past. They don't usually download every page of a website, but you may be able to find the page in question there.

Pages are typically available at Archive.org about six months after they're first collected.

To find your page at Archive.org, go to the Wayback Machine at http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html, then type your domain name (not an individual page) then see if you can find a recent version of your page there, in IA's archive.

Archive.org, may, in some circumstances, be able to provide you (the site owner) with a copy of your pages which they have archived. Please see their FAQ page for more information.

Questions?

Good luck with your site! Please let me know if you'd like to use my services, or if you have any questions. I'm always glad to help & would be delighted to hear from you.

cheers ~
Denise