Is my website really lost? All the files are in my .Mac account but what?!

Question

I have read several of the threads on the topic and have become quite disillusioned by the thought of having to start from scratch again. HELP!
I originally created my personal website, web.mac.com/username (I've moved the files to a different directory), several months back and had been using the previous edition of iWeb for its creation and maintenance. Since then my former computer, a MacBook, experienced a head crash that left me only with a backup that had been done 3 months prior. Since then, as I have inched my way through updating all of my work files, I have held of on doing anything with my website. I now want to edit it and with the upgrade (10/25/07) to a MacBook Pro and the new iWeb '08, I get that sinking feeling that this isn't going to end well.
My first issue (concern) has to do with how little conclusive and specific information is provided when it comes to the difference between a HomePage site and your other pages, namely when one has created their personal site using the web.mac.com avenue. Why is this process so ridiculously complicated? It really need not be and I wish someone took note of that.
As an avid user of MS FrontPage I was a little leery of using iWeb but was turned on by its ease of use and professional appearing pages and capabilities. However, after having invested all the time in making and publishing the site I am now concerned with the discussion and the seeming reality that I will have to start from scratch. All my files are sitting in my .mac account (I must admit in several locations as I got a bit zealous with ensuring that all the files were there in virtual triplicate) and yet from what I understand there is no way to get iWeb to point to those files so that you can simply begin the editing process again. Is that correct? When I go looking for 'Domain' files or anything of the sort that have been mentioned in discussions on and off this forum, I just don't see it. Is there no way to simply hop back on the train and edit my site again instead of starting from scratch? I'm just annoyed at opening iWeb only to see 'Site' and no other files! If there is a way that someone can share with me how to not have to redo everything, I am not against paying for the 'secret' as I think that the inability to simply 'import' or do anything that seems reasonable here is a bit frustrating. Can you begin again without starting from scratch?
I suppose if I am told that I can't then I will certainly have to turn my back on iWeb as even though MS FrontPage is not the best WYSIWYG, I can at least do directory management and things with manual code that iWeb has yet to incorporate (I do use iWeb Enhancer on my iWeb site to overcome this annoyance). I really need assistance as I would like to edit my website for the first time in over 4 months and as I said before will bail on iWeb if I have to start from scratch. Anyone willing to assist me, I again would be very appreciative. If there is a way, just let me know, I'm savvy enough with these types of things for the consultation process to take very little time at all.
HELP!!!
Message was edited by: davidson_23

Answer 1

To say that "everyone says" is a bit like saying "just because." iWeb doesn't instruct, prompt, or even suggest you make a copy of your Domain file. I'm not sure if that policy has changed in the past few months since I last used the program. However, if this file is so important wouldn't one think that it would also be available on the server with all the other files one uploads or backs up to iDisk?! And so for the user of the program to 'not know' or 'know because everyone says' to make a copy of the Domain file is a bit confusing. Again, as I am often careful with website files, that was also the reason why I had made so many copies of the files within the website. I liked using iWeb (and again hope to in the very near future) but because of the limitations I mentioned before, I was only using it to for my personal site. Having used a plethora of other programs I just wanted to be able to keep using iWeb for my own stuff and then as the functionality became available would then use it for others. I should clarify, use it to 'publish' other sites. I'm certainly not going to get into an argument over it and if you'd like to have the last word, that's fine too, I just think that this is a real issue and that if the program worked like others that one could import the files back in, it wouldn't be a problem at all. However, at this present moment I have all the pieces of the puzzle except for the key. I have all the files but am missing a so called Domain file that I didn't even know had existed until this issue reared its head. Again, I'm annoyed at how difficult an otherwise simple issue to address would be. It's almost like saying that I should have known that the hidden 'exe' or 'dmg' file should have been one I thought about when doing any kind of back up and that despite having all the content files, they mean nothing. I will continue to search for the Domain file as I am hopeful that when my IT guy (Network Administrator) backed all my contents prior to the crash, he took every single file and that one should be among them if it is the location as had been previously mentioned. When my Mac crashed, it's as I said, a head crash on the hard drive and so there was no coming back from that. It was truly irreparable as I sent it off to a very reputable data recovery company to save it to no avail. However, I had done a full backup three months prior and am hopeful that the file is somewhere on my work server. If not, as you have pointed out, I'm screwed. And so while I still say that the program is to be blamed for some of its odd idiosyncrasies, I also accept that we'll have to agree to disagree on the issue.