I just recovered from a pretty bad crash using Server 2008 Shadow copy. Ultimatly I didn’t lose more than a few hours of work but a loss is a loss.
I’ve decided to move to version control to prevent this from happening again. What I’m interested in knowing is how does one handle the mysql directory? And how do you handle a development site and a live site (trunk and branch) running at the same time? I assume you wouldn’t be able to move a development database to production with the posts being consistently updated.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Have a look at this older question: How to: Easily Move a WordPress Install from Development to Production?. It covers migration and deployment of WP installations.
For your more immediate issue, do backups of your database. Use a backup plugin (WP-DB-Backup is what I use, find it on the WP plugins repository) to handle this for you. You needn’t worry as much about the core WP files as those can be loaded up again. You do need to keep backups of your theme files.
Also take a look at this article: http://www.noeltock.com/web-design/wordpress/fast-furious-wordpress-theme-development-pt1/. It’s about using source control to simplify deployments. It’s something I want to give a try!