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 | in which we flex our virtual muscles |
Things I learned from upgrading my blogging software over the weekend:
1. That handy “5 minute installation” only takes 5 minutes if you follow all the directions without screwing anything up. And maybe not even then. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never managed that. But I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
2. When it says “do not delete these files:” and then gives you a list of files? You probably want to NOT DELETE THOSE FILES. Because if you do? Yeah, ain’t nothing going to work anymore. Following directions = Good idea.
3. If you do happen to accidentally delete your necessary, uh, stuff, you will be glad that you followed Direction Number 1, which was to back up all your files. You did back up all your files, didn’t you? Didn’t you? Wait, did you? Oh, you did. Heart attack averted. Excellent.
4. Restoring the backup will take about eleventy million years. Have a paper bag handy for hyperventilating purposes.
5. After restoring the accidentally deleted files, you still have to install the software you started trying to install an hour and a half ago.
6. DON’T DELETE THE SAME FILES ALL OVER AGAIN.
7. And… ta-daaa, 113 minutes later, the blog looks exactly like it did before upgrading. Except on my end, where the dashboard looks all different and I don’t know where any of the features are. Awesome. We should really do this more often.
1. That handy “5 minute installation” only takes 5 minutes if you follow all the directions without screwing anything up. And maybe not even then. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never managed that. But I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
2. When it says “do not delete these files:” and then gives you a list of files? You probably want to NOT DELETE THOSE FILES. Because if you do? Yeah, ain’t nothing going to work anymore. Following directions = Good idea.
3. If you do happen to accidentally delete your necessary, uh, stuff, you will be glad that you followed Direction Number 1, which was to back up all your files. You did back up all your files, didn’t you? Didn’t you? Wait, did you? Oh, you did. Heart attack averted. Excellent.
4. Restoring the backup will take about eleventy million years. Have a paper bag handy for hyperventilating purposes.
5. After restoring the accidentally deleted files, you still have to install the software you started trying to install an hour and a half ago.
6. DON’T DELETE THE SAME FILES ALL OVER AGAIN.
7. And… ta-daaa, 113 minutes later, the blog looks exactly like it did before upgrading. Except on my end, where the dashboard looks all different and I don’t know where any of the features are. Awesome. We should really do this more often.
This is why I make my husband do all the upgrading stuff for me. I married a computer geek for a reason. It allows me to say “Hey, upgrade this,” and then walk away and shut the door so I can’t hear the cussing.
I married a non computer geek but I use the same method as Heather anyway.
i married a person who can barely type so i take a different route – don’t upgrade!
(i have really been wanting to comment and say how much i am loving your posting everyday this month. unfortunately i have been too busy scratching to do a whole lot of commenting. but i am loving your highly active blogging mode!)
Ditto on the highly active blogging mode this month. Don’t stop. You have the ability to make things up like nobody’s business.
Also. Just never delete. Lessons learned right?
Also. I married a computer geek but I’m pretty sure that as long as I follow the directions I can do a 5 minute upgrade. That is, if I have the 15 minutes to read the directions for the upgrade that will take a third of the time. Which I usually don’t.
Again. No deleting. If you are like any of my children I should probably just repeat that a few times.
One more thing. My dashboard has been flashing UPDATE for three weeks. And me? Totally ignoring it. And totally trying to ignore the fact that I have to switch hosting companies because WHA????
Um. Make up something tomorrow. I’ll be back. Even though Five for Ten is over…you are a daily stop, my friend.
I married a literature geek, but I might try Heather’s and Lynne Marie’s strategy next time. If I ever feel brave enough to try again. (So far I’ve mostly gone with Robin’s strategy. This may explain how I was on version, like, 1.0, upgrading to 2.8.whatever.)
Sarah: keep repeating. But the directions involved deleting! Just not deleting everything. Oh, and: Let me know what hosting you end up with, if you love it. ‘Kay?
I got to be really good at “one click” installs last weekend. I think I installed and deleted about six times. And then I backed up…which took about twenty minutes. Then I hired someone to help with some other stuff…he alerted me to the fact that the “one click” install…installed 42 themes! Amazing how they can install 42 themes in seconds an it takes about twenty minutes to delete all those themes.