Well boys I think she's a goner. I've seen server restoration done and done it myself. It shouldn't take more than two or three days for a site like that (Realistically it should be done in 3-5 hours. Unless the hardware failed).
Similar happened here, TBN, several years ago. They had worked themselves into a corner, modifying standard VBulletin locally until finally something broke and they had a mess. But recovery was in the time frame you describe, a few days, and not too much lost. (Not much was explained beyond a brief mention that unsupportable incompatibility had finally bit them).
If you read an old thread from several years ago and see a lot of duplicate posts, that was when I think they had to restore from multiple sources and it wasn't worth the trouble to hand-edit out the duplicates. Big mess, but it became less significant as subsequent posts were made. There's a later problem of the user entering duplicate posts but that's different - the massive duplicates I mentioned appeared out of nowhere all across the board.
I'm content to be a moderator on a much smaller, quieter VB board. If it goes down we kid the owner that he must have bumped the server reaching over to turn off his alarm clock in the morning.
Back in the pre-windows days I was the first manager of a 60-person Netware LAN. We had configured it so well that a year later when a T1 line finally connected us to HQ and the larger world (and the internet), it integrated into the larger network flawlessly. Of course with the new connection to HQ we were required to take on one of their IT 'network specialists', and two interns to assist him, to do what I had been responsible to accomplish half-time alongside my regular work.
I have the greatest respect for anyone who can manage a network or forum such as WW or TBN and keep it right-side-up.
