Backup and restore

I fixed my own problem, with help from others here.

    Like someone guessed.....I had a corrupt character in a simple web page resource.  How it got there is a mystery.  But I simply deleted that resouce from my course, did another backup and moved the zip file to a new server where it then was able to restore!  

Lucky for me I had a linux box with a text editor that allowed me to seek to line 9600 in my xml backup file.   

Steps to debug a restore that does not work.
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- try the restore on a server that is not the one with the original course data
- or just use the same server
- it is best to use a moodle server with the same moodle version
- attempt the restore with the moodle web interface
- Write down the line number where the error occured
- use a zip utility to unzip the backup.zip  file
- use a good text editor to open the big old XML file
- use the editor to seek out that line number, or just page down and down
- see if there are any clues about the content, look above, look below
- quit and do not save using the text editor
- go back to your course on the original server if it is still working
- login to moodle with teacher or admin privlidges
- find the content that may have a corrupt character or binary data
- delete that content
- use the backup to create another zip file
- copy the backup file to a new server
- on my linux server the folder "backupdata" is hard to find
   /var/lib/moodle/1/backupdata/filename.zip
- use the moodle web interface to select restore
- hope you don't get an error in the same line number or close


Thanks so much.  

I will be updating the moodle.org wiki documentation on backup and restore.  They need some major work.  
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Restore

      I'm guessing most people don't ever backup their courses.  Even fewer people ever practice a restore.     A real safety drill is to put the passengers into lifeboats and then on to a different boat!   


http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=15764#226017