Best way to back-up *BASIC* WP site?

  • etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)


    8 years, 6 months ago

    Recently got hacked. Our WP site is really basic. No users or registrations or anything. It’s not our primary website. Just has a couple of “Categories”, 27 Blog Posts, and some Images and Text-information changes in the Header and Footer on the Basic Twenty Seventeen Theme, just some basic color/image changes to header/footer information.

    I am probably just going to BLOW UP the MySQL database in my web-host, BLOW UP these WordPress installation files on our web-space via FTP, create an entirely new sub-directory and not install a new one on

    /blog/

    anymore, and just start a new MySQL database, but maybe install a Back-up of this current site with a Fresh WP installation, in a new sub-directory other than it’s current place at /blog/ .

    Now, we only have 27 “Posts”. And each one of those is just one page or two, and some of them have .JPG or two. So this is a super-basic WP site. But what’s the best way to scoop up all of my settings, all of our 27 Posts (they are basic posts with a JPG or two attached) and all of the images and text in those posts, and everything on how I have my Blog and its Theme and everything now, to Back-up and Restore on a fresh installation that I will do with a different MySQL database and in a new sub-directory from my root directory?

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    8 years, 6 months ago

    I use the plugin “backwpup”. It works reliably and automatically and backs up off-site to places like Dropbox for free.
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/backwpup/

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    If I understand your question, try reviewing codex:
    http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup

    Thread Starter etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    I have just installed the Free version, and am looking at it right now, from within my Dashboard.

    Can I be confident that it will be all-encompassing with all 27 Posts (its texts and images and tags in it), my 2 Categories, and the Settings/Colors/Text on the Header and Footer of my Twenty Seventeen Theme?

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Yes.

    Thread Starter etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Am I able to use either of these two methods even though I am going to obliterate this current MySQL database on my server that I have set up right now, start a completely new MySQL database, install a new fresh installation of WP that is going then interface with this new MySQL database?

    Will using either this “BackWPup” or the built-in “WordPress Backups” method be able to restore everything, in this way?

    Thread Starter etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    I don’t intend to back-up the MySQL database…I was going to obliterate it. Is that not possible? I definitely would have to backup the MySQL database too?

    Thread Starter etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Because since I only have 27 Posts, I am ok with just manually re-doing those 28 Posts, that doeesn’t bother me. All I do is copy/paste some text from some Microsoft Word documents.

    Will doing JUST the backup of the WordPress side of things keep my “look”, my Theme settings, my “Category settings”, my top-menu settings and all of that jazz, or no?

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Your theme settings are in the database, so if you blitz the DB, your theme and plugin settings will fall back to defaults.

    Thread Starter etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Ok, since I don’t trust that whatever hacked my site won’t be somehow left in the code if I were to do a backup and restore, I’m just gonna obliterate the MySQL database on my web-server, delete every single file in my entire

    /blog/

    sub-directory; start a new MySQL database, open a new sub-folder on my web-space, install a new WordPress Theme, re-edit the Theme to look a certain way, and re-publish all 27 Posts.

    Can anyone recommend the best Virus/Protection/Firewall/Hacker-protection I could install that would be most helpful in the future, to help protect against being hacked?

    I don’t see how it happened. I used the default Password that WP automatically generated for the main Admin account whenever I first installed this WP installation; those passwords are ridiculously long with many different types of characters, and I always kept my WP version up-to-date, and I had Akismet installed and kept *it* up-to-date, too.

    Thanks for helping me think through this.

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Install the plugin WordFence and always use strong passwords. Keep everything up to date.

    George Appiah

    (@gappiah)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Ok, since I don’t trust that whatever hacked my site won’t be somehow left in the code if I were to do a backup and restore, I’m just gonna obliterate the MySQL database on my web-server, delete every single file in my entire

    That’s a good idea. But note that backdoors can be hidden anywhere inside your files and folders as well, even outside your /blog/ directory where WordPress lives…. and not just the database.

    Be sure to review this page:

    https://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_My_site_was_hacked

    Thread Starter etcbbu

    (@etcbbu)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    I’m very interested in running the “Extended Protection” option of this “WordFence” security plugin. But I am a little scared of allowing it to manipulate my .htaccess file of my entire web-space. I know that it says it forces you to download your web-space’s current .htaccess file before it lets you enable its “Extended Protection” mode which then updates the .htaccess file, but I am not confident that I would know the exact spot on my web-space to put up the previously-version, before-WordFence-manipulated .htaccess file, in case this plugin just completely wreaked havoc on our web-space and something crashed after it manipulated the .htaccesss file.

    Would I just use an FTP client to put the previously-version, before-WordFence-manipulated .htaccess file on the public root top-level directory, if something did go awry after letting WordFence manipulate my .htaccess file to enable its “Extended Protection” mode?

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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