Backing Up Your Files Using cPanel

[Skhilled]

What You Will Learn:

   
• How to make backups of your files using cPanel.
• Extracting zip files using cPanel's File Manager.

Things To Know Or Do Before Starting This:

You should have a basic understanding of how your computer/laptop works and how to use it. You should not try to do this using a tablet or cell phone. It is possible that you can do it using one of those (try cPanel's Web Disk) but you may not have the space on it to save your files if they are very large.

You should know your cPanel login information and how to login into it. If your hosting uses a different server Control Panel other than cPanel you may not have any of the features shown here! If you are using free hosting you may not even have the option of doing backups without paying for them through your hosting or getting them to do it for you! Contact your hosting if you need help for any of those things.

This set of instructions will allow you to create backups for any kind of website, forum, blog, CMS, and more!

Backing UP Your Files: Here's How You Do It:

1.  Create a folder on your hard drive for storing the backups you will need and one for the SMF download. Give the one for backups a name such as "Backups". I highly suggest creating subfolders within it for the various things like databases, etc. to make things easier to remember and recognize.

2.  Backing up your forum files:

Log into your cPanel using the information provided by your web hosting. There are a number of ways to do this:

   
• Under the "Files" heading on the right locate "Backup" and click it. You will have 2 options here, one for downloading EVERYTHING on the server into one compressed file or use the other to download the files only.
  
  * Using "Full Backup" - Click "Download A Full Website Backup". Use this option to download everything including the database, emails, etc. that are on the server.
  
  On the next page, you'll see "Backups Available For Download" and under that you'll see "Generate A Full Backup".
  
  Under "Backup Destination" choose "Home Directory" from the dropdown menu. You will then have the option to have an email sent to you when the backup is complete if you add your email address. Or you can choose not to notify you. After you have made your choices, click "Generate Backup" to start the process.
  
  
  * Using "Partial Backups" - Click "Home Directory" to download all of the files under /Home or /WWW which includes all of your files only. Click the "Home Directory" button to download all of your files directly to your computer.
  
  
• Under the "Files" heading on the right, you may also have something called "Backup Wizard" which is pretty much the same thing but does it a bit differently. Click it and you will be able to download a complete backup of everything on your server or just parts of it depending on what you choose.
  
  Under "Backup" click the "Backup" button.
  
  On the next page, under "Select Partial Backup" click the "Home Directory" button.
  
  On the following page you'll see that same button again, so click it one more time to start the download.
  
• You can go to "File Manager" and navigate to the folder that contains the files for your forum. Click "Select All" from the right title OR individually select all of the folders and files by holding down CTRL and clicking on them.
  
  You can then click "Compress" at the top of the page to add the selected folders and files into a newly created zip file which you can download to your hard drive for later use.
  
  A dialog box will popup asking you to choose a compression method. "Zip" is the most popular and should work with most compression utilities. It will also allow you to choose where you wish to save it and what to name it. It will give you a default folder, usually where you selected the files, and a default name. Click "Compress File(s)" to complete it.
  
  
  Enjoy!