[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by Theater

For now the site is running the 2 month old backup, but we're still missing on a TON of changes and data within that period of time. Yes, I am fully aware that we should have weekly backups and I'm doing my best not to flip out on my host. It's a long story, but there should have been a backup going.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a look.

--------------- Added [DATE]1243733496[/DATE] at [TIME]1243733496[/TIME] ---------------

It appears that some actual tables are empty like THREAD for example, so restoring it at this point doesn't seem likely. I am able to see 526,307 entries in POST which seems right. The USERS table only has 21 (out of ~80k).

Speaking of which... is there a way for me to add an Admin account through phpMyAdmin? I just want to be able to switch it back to the bad database for a moment, log into the AdminCP, and pull down the Styles file so it will at least save me that part of setting back up.

How do tables get dumped like that anyway? Would it be caused by a mod perhaps?

Well it depends on what happened to the server... think of a server just like your desktop (minus the OBVIOUS differences you technical members ) and what if a power surge came through? Hard Drive or Motherboard could be shot, it's the same with a running/live server in terms of the Database, for example... there were 1k members online interacting with it and creating threads, using mod functions and all when it crashed so something had to give apparently... :erm:

UKBL is right and it's not always your hosts fault, we have the options to do it ourselves via phpmyadmin AND or you can install MySQL Dumper etc.

I would do as UKBL suggest and let the MySQL guys/gals let you know what they think.

In terms of checking the old DB, simply record your DB info from the current config then key in the old DB's name & pw then upload, now check the forums.. they're back but the corrupted one and fyi your members will see this too but it's a quick way to check things out, then re-edit the config and upload again to have the restored forums back.

Stuff like this has happened to the best of us, we can beat ourselves up over no backups but best thing is to learn from it, I do them weekly now both via automatic backup and through me manually doing it just in case eh?! .

S-MAN