Restore Deleted Or Unavailable Websites

Martin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:47:15 +0000

Web users have quite a few possibilities to access websites that have been deleted or are temporarily unavailable for some time. Possibilities include using Google Cache, the Web Archive or other web caches that mirror websites. Web caches are great for accessing single pages of a website but not comfortable when multiple pages need to be accessed. It can also happen that webmasters have lost their website in a server crash and need to restore the pages from Internet caches.

Warrick is a Perl script that tries to restore websites from various Internet sources including Archive.org and the three popular search engines Google, Yahoo and Bing. Installation is a bit more complex than running an executable but still doable even for inexperienced users. The computer program is provided as a version for the Windows and Linux / Unix operating system. Windows users need to install a Perl interpreter such as Active Perl before they can run the script from the command line.

The developers have created a step by step guide for Windows users on how to install and use the script on the operating system. The Warrick website contains examples on how to use the script to restore single pages and entire web projects.

The command “warrick.pl -r -wr ia -c http://yourwebsite.com/” will reconstruct all pages of the website that are stored in at least one of the online sources used in the recovery process.

Create A Cached Website Copy

Martin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:40:53 +0000

Many websites tend to be discontinued after a time. This can be extremely frustrating if that website did contain some valuable information that are not accessible in the same form anywhere on the Internet. Google Cache might be a solution but it usually caches one of the last states of a page which does not necessarily have to be the one containing the important information. There are various ways to preserve information on the Internet. It is possible to save the information on a per-page basis using the web browser’s Save As option, to use website downloaders like HTTrack or online services like BackupUrl.

All methods have various advantages and disadvantages. Using the Save As function in web browsers is probably the fastest way to download a page to the computer. The structure makes it on the other hand uncomfortable to work with on larger projects. Website downloaders on the other hand deal perfectly with large websites, they do require some knowledge and configuration though before they even start to download the first byte.

The online service Backupurl offers another way to create a cached copy of a website. The user enters the url of a page that he wants to preserve in the form on the website. The service will then cache that url for the user and provide two addresses to cached versions of the page. The main advantage of the service is that the cached pages are not stored locally. This might be favorable in environments with strict data storage policies. The disadvantage is obvious as well. Only one page can be cached per run which means it becomes as impracticable and uncomfortable as using Save As if multiple pages need to be cached. There is also no guarantee that the service will be there when the information need to be retrieved.

It would also be an interesting option to retrieve all pages that have been cached at once. The only way to keep track of all cached pages is to copy and paste all created urls into another document. Backup URL can be an interesting option under certain circumstance. Advanced users are better off with applications like HTTrack or similar applications.

Tags: backup url, cache website, httrack, website cache, website copier, website copy, website download, website downloader

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Restore Deleted Or Unavailable Websites

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Create A Cached Website Copy

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