Question

I want to do my own backups on my website. I really don't trust my current hosting to do the job properly  and I have had some bad experiences in the past.
How can I do that. I'm using Cpanel on a Hostgator account.

Answer 1

Create a file in your /home/username/ directory named backup.php with the code below. Then setup a cron to run the file daily. We actually run it 4 times daily.

You don't need your own expensive FTP server either. I use an XP Pro machine with Filezilla server installed to it for our remote FTP server. The XP machine is located right next to my main workstation so I can burn copies to DVD if need be. I use port forwarding within my Verizon FIOS router to point the FTP port to the XP machine.

I can sleep at night now knowing I have a local copy of our most important data.

Don't rely on your hosting provider for backups. If you read most hosting providers' policies they're not responsible for them anyways.

Answer 2

Create a cron task to copy website content to some specific folder e.g today.date.year.