Why do so many people fail to properly back up their sites?
 

This is your business we're talking about, isn't it worth keeping it backed up on your own hard drive?

I have always had every page and site I've ever done mirrored EXACTLY on my hard drive,

AND burned on DVD's at least a couple of times a year

AND backed up on an external drive.

Overkill? Maybe, but the one thing you'll never see me doing is crying because my sites got deleted off a server, by accident or otherwise.

You guys who edit pages and then delete them off your computer after FTPing are nuts. When my FTP connects everything looks the same on the left as it does on the right. ie: BACKED UP.

Your funeral if you don't listen.

I agree, I back up to multiple places quite often.

Lesson learned for sure. MrBottomTooth hit the nail on the head for me, the primary loss was db's.

I just find it hard sometimes to keep on top of everything going on. It's in those moments when you try to do business only with people you know you can trust.

I thought I could trust TM.

What are these "backups" you speak of?

a friend of mine had a HD crash and lost all his files, he had over 100,000 visitors from google a day...now he has to build it back up :\

Tedious issue having to back up stuff i know i like to think i can trust my host to fufill that task and touch wood so far it's been a easy ride.

whats a backup ?

Bad idea to trust your host, even if they're competent (how many hosts have suddenly found a backup doesn't work when a customer's HD crashes?) factors beyond their control, such as a fire or earthquake, could still result in you losing everything. Backups should always be in a different location.

Sometimes it's laziness. Sometimes it's hosting company fault.

I go with the: RAID / Hosting Company backups / Regular Offsite backups route.

Been burned in the past, tough lesson learnt.

Taking my chances for the present like a lot of things in life there is risk involved!