Business site is gone, how can I get it back.

A friend of mine bought a restaurant. A website was already in place, but shortly after taking over the restaurant the website shut down. Now customers are asking about how to access the site. All I could find out is that godaddy was the host of the old site. Is there a way to get the site restored if I paid for hosting?

 

Don't you have the files?? And also do you still have the domain?

If you don't have the files, then I'm not sure, but if you do have the files then I would look for a new host. Godaddy are overexpensive and overrated.

 

The problem is that I don't have the files or the domain. The owner of the site is gone, and it looks like he terminated the site when he left. I may be able to get intouch with him and get the files back, but what about the domain? And what if I can't get the files back?

 

First check to make sure the domain is still under the old owner's ownership (by doing whois lookup,...) => then talk to him to take over the domain. If the hosting wasn't canceled for too long, maybe check with Godaddy to see if they still have backup.

If Godaddy doesn't have the files, check with the old owner if he or his designer still keep a copy of it.

Else find an affordable designer from DP and make a new site.

 

Does your friend even own the website? Unless it was part of the purchase contract, he cannot assume that he bought the domain name and website files with the restaurant.

Of course if the site is his property, then you will need to check to see if the domain has been transferred. Also, in regards to the files, sometimes it helps to look at the Google cache and also the Wayback Machine. This will not help too much if the site was a script but if it was html, then you can retrieve the files if in fact your friend legally owns the files.

 

A wicked web site I found is called the Wayback Machine. Just go to web.archive.org/collections/web.html and type in a domain and you cna see what it looked like in the past. Maybe yours is archived on there and you can copy the HTML/pictures from it.

 

Some of it was cached in google. But I was wondering if godaddy would let me have the files, or would they not allow me. My friend said it's affecting business. So I guess my only other option is to design a new site, but the problem is the restaurant name is taken in .com and .net so that would raise a lot of confusion.

 

Your friend needs to talk to the previous owner of the restaurant to find out the details about the site. If it was not included in the restaurant purchase agreement, he will probably have to negotiate a deal to purchase the domain and the site content. Like Kionic.com suggests, do a Whois lookup - it should have the current domain owner's contact information. And if the domain was not renewed, he may be able to snag it for himself directly.

 

Why don't you contact the .com domain owner and ask he whether he want to sell the domain to you or not?

 

godaddy is best option

 

If it's shut down completely with everything removed, then you will have to set up web hosting again and re-take out your domain which could be rather hard if someone else has registered it which can happen quite easily once it expires due to the domain still likely to receive some traffic. If you can get hold of all that and still have the files then upload the files and go from there. Bet to contact the hosting where you first had the site though.