website restore question

**Justinbound** · 04 December 2013, 03:15 AM

I hope this post is in the relevant location, or close enough anyways, if not I am going to go ahead and apologize. It seems I have

got myself into quite a pickle. I built an entire website using Xara designer MX, version 8. Everything was going fine, love the ease

of the program, but due to complications with Windows 7, I was forced to restore my system to the factory specs. I thought I took

all the right precautions, backing up all my files, ect, I backed up my entire website without a problem, I assumed I could just reinstall

the Xara software and this would be no problem..But it did not turn out that way. My website is in pieces , and though I could probably

just copy and rebuild the entire site..and relink everything..I was hoping for an easier way. I can only import one page at a time, but I

do have all the files. I just need someone to point me in the right direction about getting it back restored into the Xara software. Its not that

importing or copying every file would be such a big deal..its only 86 pages.. it’s the fact that I seem to have lost all my linkage within the website

its self. Basically I have a bunch of parts of a website now..and I just need to get it reconstructed. I am rather new to this whole

website design jazz, so im bowing to you experienced guys, and I appreciate your help. Thanks.

**gwpriester** · 04 December 2013, 05:28 AM

Welcome to TalkGraphics

Open WD, and go to File > Open Recent... Is there anything there?

And is there anything in Backups... at the bottom of the Open Recent... menu?

If so, try opening a few of the more recent backups.

**Justinbound** · 04 December 2013, 06:08 AM

hi, and thanks for responding. As for backups and recent I have nothing in it. I had to completely reinstall the design software.

I saved the entire folder of the website though. It has a folder called index_hmt_files with what looks to be the graphics, and outside of

that folder are all the web files. This is the exact copy of the files that I have uploaded onto the hosting company. Just not sure how

to get it back into the xara software. I can import one page at a time, but even in doing that I am basically recreating the entire website.

I have to keep opening up a new page, importing, ect, and I no longer have my links between the pages. I assumed xara would just know what

to do with the saved files and rebuild my website for me. Not sure if I need to rebuild from this point, or I am just hopefully missing a step here.

**pauland** · 04 December 2013, 07:36 AM

Justin, Xara creates the website from your design file. It cannot read the original design back from the HTML files, so you are essentially going to have to recreate the site manually. Sorry.

I would spend some time searching the files that you saved before the restore for the Xara design file.

**gwpriester** · 04 December 2013, 12:47 PM

Yes, it is the .WEB or .XAR document that you edit and make changes to your website.

Did you happen to save a copy of your Xara document? The document is what would be in your Backups folder.

You might check in Windows Explorer > Users (you) > App Data > Local > Xara > Web Designer > Backups and see if you by any chance have any in the folder.

**Justinbound** · 04 December 2013, 11:24 PM

the files that I have are called XR.files, XR.main, and XR.text. Could these be the files I need for Xara to put my site back together? if so, how would I accomplish this, by

importing them? also, some other files I have are called custom styles, PNG, and a file called Roe. Honestly I am building this site for my uncle, and the plan was he would

buy the exact same copy of this software for his machine, and I would just go and deliver the finished site to him, upload the files onto a server, and he could edit them as he

chose..Still holding out hope that this can be accomplished..I could understand not being able to do this had I used a different software, but im still holding out hope I can make

this work. I have all the files that are located on the hosting server saved. I have no backups though. I have all the graphics, all the index pages. and the files called

XR.files, XR.main, XR.text, custom styles, PNG, and Roe. I just cant seem to get them to work together again within the design software.

**gwpriester** · 05 December 2013, 01:20 AM

I am not confident these files are going to be much help.

But the good news is that next time you will probably remember to save your document file where you can find it.

I think at this point you need to start over. It is so discouraging when something like this happens, but perhaps it is still fresh in your mind and you will be able to go faster this time.

But remember to save your work often. And it is never a bad idea to save documents you are currently working on to an external drive such as a thumb drive. Then if anything happens to your computer and or hard drive, you can get up to speed quickly with a reinstall.

**pauland** · 05 December 2013, 07:07 AM

As Gary says, it's likely you are going to have to start over. The files you mention won't help you. It doesn't matter what you have on the server.

Use file explorer and search the c: drive (and whatever other drives you may have) for *.xar and *.web . If you find any, you may be in luck. If you don't you definitely will be starting over.