Issues reinstalling an old backup

[Daniel Thomas]

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.

[veenuisthebest]

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

I'm trying to reinstall a backup of an old forum that has been dead for 8 months

which means it was a database of 3.6.x

I reinstalled the database on our server and downloaded and then uploaded the core vBulletin files from the vB site

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)

Was I also supposed to to backup the original files from the old server too

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

[Daniel Thomas]

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?

[Lynne]

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

[Marco van Herwaarden]

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