Issues reinstalling an old backup
 

All right, I know there's already guide that explains how to reinstall the database but it's very vague in my opinion.

Here's my issue. I'm trying to reinstall a backup of an old forum that has been dead for 8 months. Using bigdump.php I reinstalled the database on our server and downloaded and then uploaded the core vBulletin files from the vB site, and modified the config file to access the new database, however I get a Database error screen when I go to the forum.

Was I also supposed to to backup the original files from the old server too, or is just the database sufficient? Is there something I'm supposed to run after I upload the database and files to make the forum read the database? Help would be greatly appreciated.

i think the vB version must be creating the problem..

which means it was a database of 3.6.x

which means you restored database of 3.6.x and uploaded the latest version i.e. 3.7.1 files (assuming you downloaded it today)

yes, you should have done it and then should have overwritten the newer vB files and run the upgrade script.

Will downloading the correct version that was used on the old database be sufficient? Or would I still need the original files from the old server in order to make the database work?

If you want to use the latest version of vb, I think you can just run the upgrade script on your database.

Please start by providing the full error message you get. Anything people say before the full error is provided are nothing more then guesses.