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This post is a follow-up to my previous post ‘Playing with fire‘.

To make backups of your WordPress blog you firstly need to have a copy of the core files on your hard drive somewhere. The information supplied here will differ from blog to blog, depending on how you have installed WordPress. The graphic on the left shows the directories and files that I had to download to my machine to ensure that I have a backup of all my core files.

This procedure could take quite a while to complete but fortunately it is not something that has to be done everyday. This backup I refresh every time I update to a new version of Wordpress as well as every time I make any changes to these files. If and when I make changes to the files used by my current theme I update the backup just with the relevant files.

Once this has been done you now need to backup your WordPress database files.

Once again this is something that will differ from blog to blog, depending on which software your host allows you to use. In my case I have to open PHPMyAdmin to complete this task. If you use some other software I am afraid I cannot help you on this issue and you will have to do some Googling.

If you are using PHPMyAdmin you have to get it open. On the initial page that opens you need to click on “Databases” as shown in the graphic.

On the page that opens you must click on “Export”. This link you will find at the top right of the screen.

On the page that opens now you need to make a couple of selections:

Firstly select the database you want to backup.

Under “Structure” click on “Add DROP TABLE” to select this item.

Under “Data” you need to click on “Complete Inserts” and “Extended Inserts” to de-select these items.

Under “Save as File” select “zipped”.

At the bottom right you will find a “Go” button. Click this and you are done.

These posts might be related:

1. Installing a Local Copy of WordPress
2. Speeding up that WordPress blog
3. Playing with fire
4. Do you need all those revisions?
5. WordPress Security