Website rescue & migration · Udupi & Mangaluru
We take over websites and business software that broke, fell years behind, or were left by a developer who stopped answering, and put them back in your name. We are a studio in Udupi, and we stay on after the fix.
In short
Website recovery and migration means getting a broken, hacked or abandoned website working again, back in its owner's name, and moved onto current software without losing its pages, email or old links. It can cover records in old business software too. Whirl Designs handles this from its Udupi studio for businesses along the Karnataka coast, and takes a full backup, then proves it restores, before changing anything.
Start here
A rescue does not always end in a new website. Once we have seen what you have, it goes one of three ways, and we suggest the smallest one that will hold.
Best for: A site that works apart from one clear fault
Best for: Good content on software too old to update
Best for: Code nobody can change safely any more
A rebuild is the last thing we suggest, not the first. If a repair will hold, that is what we will tell you.
Our work
This page has no client case study, because there is no rescue job we can show you yet. The rescue report in the picture above uses made-up numbers for a made-up shop.
What we can show is the groundwork a rescue stands on, in systems we built and run ourselves: backups that have been restored for real, software that runs live on ordinary shared hosting, where most small-business websites sit too, and a fault on our own website found, fixed and written up in public.
Closest projects
ERP Sutra
Software products · Karnataka
Our own product arm — a shared platform layer with two industry ERPs built on top of it, both live with paying users rather than sitting in a pitch deck.
What you get
Whatever state your system is in, these six are part of the job. Each one is its own line in the plan, so you can tick it off at the end.
How it runs
The old system keeps serving your customers until the new one has been checked. Nothing is switched off first.
A web address and an old invoice are enough to begin. We check everything the site shows from the outside before we ask you for anything more.
You ask the registrar (the company the domain was bought through) and the host to put the accounts in the business's name. We draft the request with you and gather the proof they want, such as invoices, GST registration or company papers.
Once there is access, the first job is a full copy. Only then do we open the code and find out what failed, working on the copy rather than your live site.
Repair, upgrade or rebuild: what we recommend, what each part involves and how long it should take. No change is made until you agree to it.
The fixed or upgraded system runs on a test address while the old one carries on. You and your staff try it there and point out anything that looks or works wrong.
Mail settings are copied across first, so email keeps arriving, and the switch is made at a quiet hour. Then we test the redirects, forms and inboxes, and leave the old server untouched for a few weeks, where the host allows, in case anything must be pulled back.
Not a fit
Some first calls end with us pointing you somewhere simpler, and these are the usual reasons.
Questions
Get the domain back first, because it is the one part that cannot be rebuilt. Ask the registrar that holds it to put the account in the business's name. Invoices, GST registration or company papers help, though some registrars also want the developer's written consent. Then ask the host for the hosting account or a full backup. If neither can be had, the site can usually be rebuilt from the pages it still shows.
Look up your domain on lookup.icann.org or any WHOIS site. The result shows the registrar the domain was bought through and the date it expires. The owner's name is often hidden for privacy, so ask the registrar which email address the account uses. The same result lists the nameservers, which usually point to your hosting company. Old invoices and renewal emails fill in the rest.
Not if every old address still leads somewhere. Before the switch we list every URL the old site has and send each one to its closest new page with a permanent (301) redirect, never all of them to the home page. Positions can move about for a few weeks while Google reads the new site, so we watch Google Search Console, which shows pages Google cannot reach, and fix any address that breaks.
Usually, yes. These breaks mostly happen when the host moves to a newer PHP version, the language the site is written in, or when a plugin update clashes with old code. We get the site back up from the last working copy where one exists, then fix the code the new version rejects, test it on a copy and update the live site. A site still on PHP 5.6 has had no security fixes since the end of 2018.
Usually, yes, though it takes longer. When there is no clean copy to restore, we do not try to scrub infected files one at a time. We save the text, photos and database records, check them, and put them on a fresh install of current software. Then every password is changed, the way in is closed, and if Google has marked the site as unsafe, we ask Google to review it.
Often, yes. Older programs, such as those built on FoxPro or Access, usually keep their data in files that can be read and exported. We move customers, items, balances and past bills into the new system, then run old and new side by side and compare the totals, GST included, before the old one is retired. You can bring the old computer to our studio in Udupi, or we come to you in Manipal, Mangaluru, Karkala or Kundapura.
Anything from a few days to about eight weeks, and getting access back decides most of it. Recovering a domain or hosting account through the registrar can take a few days or a few weeks, and that part is in their hands. Once we are in, a site that is otherwise intact is usually repaired in days. Upgrading or rebuilding a larger site, or moving years of records out of old software, usually takes four to eight weeks.
A rescue is a one-time job for a site that is broken, out of your control or too old to update. A host's move, or our cloud and server migration service, copies a working site to a new server; it does not win back access, repair code or redirect old addresses. Website maintenance comes afterwards: the regular updates, backups and checks that keep a rescued site healthy.
Worth reading first
Clean, documented, tested code on a modern, proven stack — the foundation that keeps your legacy rescue & migration fast and dependable for years.
Ready when you are
Send us the web address and a list of the logins you still have, and you will get a plain, written plan in return: what can be saved, what cannot, and the order we would work in.
