You are responsible for your backups and web content.
The specific backup policy depends on what type of account you have. We do make weekly backups for all our servers except dedicated servers.
We can restore your web, email and database content from those per your request. However, this is NOT a procedure you should rely on to keep copies of your content safe; we recommend you make your own backups. Our backups are made every week on a random day, and only the newest backups are kept. We make no guarantees about our weekly backups, and we do require a $15 fee to restore the HostGator backups. If you can provide your own backup file, then the fee is $0 (free).
To request a restoration of your content from a backup file, simply fill out this form. When you get to the instructions, please clearly indicate what content you want restored and what you do not want restored.
Shared, Reseller and SEO Hosting
We create our own weekly backups of shared servers of accounts that are under 20 GB and 100,000 inodes.
Windows Shared
We create our own weekly backups of Windows shared servers.
VPS
We create our own weekly backups of your VPS container, which includes everything in your VPS container.
Linux Dedicated Servers
We do not make backups of dedicated servers, however there are many options for making your own backups.
By default, Linux dedicated servers are setup to make automatic daily backups, which are written to the secondary drive. (Older servers may not have this setup, but new servers will be setup this way.)
If you would like your server setup differently, or would like RAID, please contact sales@hostgator.com and we can assist you in setting up an appropriate solution.
Windows Dedicated Servers
We do not make backups of dedicated servers, however there are many options for making your own backups.
By default, Windows dedicated servers running Windows 2008 R2 are setup with an automatic Windows image backup to the secondary drive. (Older servers may not have this setup, but new servers will be setup this way.)
Please note that the Windows image backup requires that the server be taken offline and rebooted into recovery so that the image can be restored. We can pull individual files without taking the server offline but for the full image we need to take the server offline.
If you would like your server setup differently, or would like RAID, please contact sales@hostgator.com and we can assist you in setting up an appropriate solution.
Large Backups
Shared, Reseller and SEO Hosting
Note: You may only create backups via cPanel of 4 GB or less. If your backup is larger than 4 GB or over 100,000 inodes, you must contact HostGator support for help to bypass the limit. Please note that we are unable to manually create full backups of accounts that are larger than 10 GB. Other limitations may also apply. Shared accounts are limited to one (1) cPanel backup stored on the account. Please see sections 2, 5, 7b, and 7c of our Terms of Service for additional information.
| Size (up to) | Allowed to be saved on the server? | Automatic backups will be made? | Manual backups can be made? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 GB Space |
 |
|
Yes, by us or you |
| 10 GB Space |
|
|
Yes, by us |
| 20 GB Space |
|
|
 |
| 50 GB Space |
|
|
|
| 100,000 inodes |
|
|
Yes, by us or you |
| 250,000 inodes |
|
|
Yes, by us |
| 300,000 inodes |
|
|
|
The sizes in the table above are "up to" that size. For example, where it says 4 GB Space, it means 4 GB or smaller. And where it says 10 GB Space, it means smaller than 10 GB, and larger than the previous size, which in this case is 4 GB.
What if my account was suspended?
If your account is suspended less than 1 week before we run backups, your account will still be backed up!
If you are suspended for more than a week when we run backups, your old backup will be erased and you will not be included in the new backups. Thus, we will have NO backups for your account. So, it is very important that you maintain your own backups.
How do I restore my own backup?
A partial backup (home directory backup) can be restored in cPanel, same place where you made the backup.
A full backup must be restored by the root user for the server. We will restore your full backups for free. Simply fill out this form. When you get to the instructions, please indicate the name of the file and where we can find it.