Database Backup Question

[pzfc]

firstly i'm sorry for the constant questions. I'm really new to all this & need further help.

I did a backup of my gallery today following the instructions my hosting co gave me. I have nearly 1700 pics in my gallery.

http://www.preityzinta-fanclub.com/gallery

after i did the backup & downloaded the sql file. The size of the file was 435kb, my question is, is the size of the file meant to be that small? i was expecting it to be bigger.

am i doing something wrong? did i download the wrong file? please help.

[steverobbins]

Hi there,

Yes, that is an expected size of the database.  The database does not actually store the photographs, just information about them.  You can find your pictures and other files at /gallery/albums/userpics/*

You should back up this area as well for total peace of mind.

Regards
Steve.

[pzfc]

awesome! thanks steve.

i do have a backup of the actual pics aswell so its all good for now..

[Joachim Müller]

correction: the pics are actually located inside the albums folder, not limited to only the userpics subfolder. For an actual backup, you should have a local copy of your overall coppermine folder - it makes recovering from a server crash much easier.