Should the old file be deleted from a web site before uploading a file with chaqnges but the same name?
Thanks

it's not necessary as long as you tell it to overwrite it which it will usually do just fine. The only time it would really be necessary is if you are having problems with something not uploading correctly. Then you might want to delete the files currently on the server and upload the recently updated ones. This doesn't happen all too often so you should be just fine overwriting them.

A word of caution on overwriting. If you're unsure, and even if you're not, it's always a good idea to backup your files prior to uploading periodically just so you can go back if you need to. Most times this will not really be a problem, but it's a nice safeguard for possible upload problems, crashes, etc. that can be a pain. I tend to backup my site files to a different directory on my computer every few days or so just for posterity's sake so I have a way to go back at least a little ways.

I wouldn't worry about this while you're still developing a site, mostly this would be if you have a production site already up and don't want to lose your hard work

*this message comes from the experience a few months ago of accidentally deleting her whole website in CPanel with a Joomla site that is all database driven, and a morononic crew of people at the site we bought our hosting reseller package from that kept only 2 days of backups and spent those 2 days asking me the same questions from 4 different people and wasting the backup, and the stupid people didn't even make a copy of my files when we started the tech support so that they wouldn't lose the backup .... and they lost it ... 2 day window ... all gone lol*

Trust me, starting over from scratch is not "always" fun and games LOL, make a backup periodically.

Guess What? They just changed their policy for backups to 30 days now... can't imagine why LOL

Thanks for your reply. I over write the old server files now.

Agree on the backup.

How do you get the backup to your computer? What does the backed up file look like? I might not be doing something right here. The last backup I made looked like jibberish.

well I just copy all my working files that I've created to a folder, basically downloading them as is not doing a backup file like a database would. Then after I get all the files downloaded that I want backed up (I usually try to keep the structure intact as is too) I zip it up and store it away for future use if I need it. Doesn't take too long to download a site this way via your ftp program and this way you can have it download right to the specific folder you want to keep it safe in too. Basically it's a working copy of your site.

Having said that, if your using html to build it, and you have the exact working copy on your own computer that you do online, then just zip up your working directory and store it away, same thing as downloading it

If you're using VSD... then I'll have to look into how that's done as I haven't really used VSD or uploaded anything with it to see what it does or haven't seen what it saves on your computer and where and how etc. If you know these answers, then just zip up what you are creating same way as you would the html.

I'm of the mind to keep backups simple, no need to complicate them with major database compressions and all that junk Zip it up with your favorite compression tool (winzip, winrar, etc.) and you're good to go

Jo Ann
Thanks for your comments re backing up. You are right, simpler is better.
Gerard

You're quite welcome gerard and hope it all worked out for ya