Yesterday I was searching through logs on the server and came across one which wouldn't open properly. Upon further investigation I found that the HDD had bad blocks, which is never good. As a result, we will have to swap the HDD for a new one, and re-install everything. This could take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two, and so I'll be shutting the forums down at some point this week when everything is due to go through. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
That said, do not worry, all your data is backed up properly. We have backup processes on the server that backup the database every day, and the forum software files every week (all to an external server). Since I've got advanced warning of these problems, I'll be doing additional backups so nothing should be lost. It also means that the migration should be a bit less hectic than the previous one, since I can backup all configuration files and just dump them on the new disk.
We will also be investing in RAID technology which means this shouldn't be an issue for us in the future. Again, apologies for any inconvenience caused. I'll be in #atheistforums on the DALnet IRC network during the process (assuming it only lasts a few hours).
That said, do not worry, all your data is backed up properly. We have backup processes on the server that backup the database every day, and the forum software files every week (all to an external server). Since I've got advanced warning of these problems, I'll be doing additional backups so nothing should be lost. It also means that the migration should be a bit less hectic than the previous one, since I can backup all configuration files and just dump them on the new disk.
We will also be investing in RAID technology which means this shouldn't be an issue for us in the future. Again, apologies for any inconvenience caused. I'll be in #atheistforums on the DALnet IRC network during the process (assuming it only lasts a few hours).
