During my career as a web developer it has happened to me on two occasions where my local server stopped working “out of nowhere”.

Unfair bugs in the software that have caused me to lose valuable time due to the many hours it takes to restore it.

So today I will write some important tips to prevent this happen to you:

The importance of performing a backup every 4 hours

Many people underestimate the importance of making a backup of their projects.

Many people trust the PC too much because in 99% of the cases, when they turn it on, their projects are there, working perfectly.

However there is always a chance that the project will crash when you turn on your local server (especially if you installed it without administration permissions).

This happened to me on two occasions when I completely forgot about that possibility.

If you are working on your website with WordPress, my favorite and recommended plugin is Duplicator.

With Duplicator you can use the Import Database Only option, if your website is too heavy, copy the folders manually and reinstall everything.

Make sure you installed and run the local servers in Administrator mode

Many times local servers collapse or fail due to the lack of administration permissions at the time of its execution.

It is important to ensure both at the time of installation and when running the servers that they do so with all administrative privileges.

Otherwise, your local servers could collapse or stop working out of nowhere (as happened to me :'( ), losing and/or damaging any project carried out.

Have a second local server ready and configured

I would recommend investing in a second work computer (PC), where you can set up a local server ready in case your main server crashes.

The time to move your backup (depending on the size of the files) may be less than it would take to reinstall a new local server.

Especially if you have a project delivery date the next day.

Hard Drive in Risk

This error happened to me this year (2023), many times we don’t check how is our hard drive when it has been in use for a long time.

It is important to use applications like Crystal Disks Info Info to verify that the hard drive is not “At Risk” and one day it fails, causing us to lose valuable time and projects.

These kinds of setbacks are catastrophic when we already have on going projects, so keep them in mind.

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Have a nice day!