How can I backup/restore my SharePoint site?

This information in this article applies to:

SharePoint 2003
Backup/Restore SPS Site
FrontPage 2003

You can make a backup of your Sharepoint website using Microsoft Frontpage 2003. The backup will create a file on your local hard disk. You can keep this file and use it to restore the entire Sharepoint web site if needed.

Note: We strongly encourage customers to create regular backups of their SharePoint site using this method.  Re-invent backup / restore services do not include individual restore of specific SharePoint sites and is intended for disaster recovery only in the unlikely event of a server problem.

How to make a Backup:

- Open Frontpage
- Menu File / Open Site
- Enter the URL of your Sharepoint site to open it
- Enter your Sharepoint administration login and password
- Go to menu Tools / Server / Backup web site
- Check the box next to "Include subsites in archive" if you want to make a backup of the opened site and all its subsites
- The backup will be created as one or more files on your harddisk


You can restore to any empty Sharepoint website or to any new and empty subsite.

If you need to restore your whole Sharepoint website, you can ask Re-Invent Support to delete and recreate your Sharepoint site. You can than use Frontpage to restore to this empty Sharepoint site.

If you restore to a new subsite, create a new subsite and do not apply a template to it. Open the subsite in Frontpage and start the restore.


How to Restore from a Backup:

- Open Frontpage
- Menu File / Open Site
- Enter the URL of your Sharepoint site or subsite, to which you want to restore
- Enter your Sharepoint administration login and password
- Go to menu Tools / Server / Restore web site
- Select the backup file on your local harddisk


If the restore is finished, you will see the restored content when visiting the site or subsite with a browser.

If Frontpage gives an error "Cannot restore because a template is already applied", make sure to create a new subsite first, without applying a template (such as a Team site template).