I basically did the same thing this guy did, and have the same question.

I backed up the database via SMF's Forum Maintenance - 'Save the table structure' and 'Save the table data. (the important stuff)' both checked.

I'm attempting to restore the entire forum on Zymic hosting. I have a fresh forum set up, atm. The link I mentioned, suggests "restore the backup database to an empty table and then, install an 'upgrade' package of SMF on it." If that's the best way to go, how do I "restore the backup database to an empty table"? or is there a better option?


*Edit*
Using Zymic Database Uploader 1.1, I attempted to import the backup sql, but I got the error:

"Error at the line 36677: (329, 'VanDaL', 1304296112, 0, 0, '', 1304298580, 'VanDaL', 0, 0, '', '', '', '942f50632fa6f779df228c4ef80aba611c6309d0', 'vandalist@o2.pl', '', 1, '1988-10-09', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', 0, 1, '', '', 0, '', 1, 0, 0, '', 1, 1, 0, 2, '83.26.82.174', '83.26.82.174', '', '', 0, 1, '', 17765, '', '', 4, 352, '4b7f');"

"MySQL: Illegal double '79935e4956' value found during parsing

Stopped on error"

its saying on the .sql file there was an error on line 36677 and its not on the Zymic Database Uploader so you need to empty the database and try again

I deleted the sql database, created a new sql database, imported the backup again using Zymic Database Uploader, and it gave the same error.

Starting from scratch, I:
1. Created an SQL database; Created a user, assigned the user rights
2. Imported the sql backup

Am I doing anything out of order, or skipping any steps? Should I install SMF before importing the backup? (which is what I tried the first time)

well you should install smf first then delete the tables inside the db and NOT the db itself and then import it

I'm not sure what files/directories tables consist of, but I'll try to figure it out. Would that relate to the error I'm getting?

*edit*Clearly, I'm new to this, so I'm gonna ask any basic question I can't figure out, so here goes. When you say 'db', are you referring to where I installed SMF? eg: the files/folders I uploaded?

db = database

I know what the letters 'db' mean I meant, what database were you referring to. The only thing I've seen referred to as a database is sql, but if I deleted the sql database, and made it again, I'd assume that would wipe everything in it.

To clarify things: Say I've done the following:

1. Made fresh MySQL database
2. Created a user for the MySQL database and assigned all rights
3. Uploaded SMF to the host server via FileZilla
4. Installed SMF (full) on the host server (so I now have a fresh working forum)
5. Attempted to import my completebackup.sql via Zymic Database Uploader, but got the error mentioned


[noob]I might understand better if I knew the relation of the MySQL database to the files hosted on the web server. Does the MySQL database contain files I can access similar to the files on the host web server? and is this where I should be wiping the tables?[/noob]

as i said once its install drop all the tables in the database and import your .sql file to your database using the zymic db importer

New problem: I ran everything from the backup.sql through query. All of my boards are up, and it shows the number of posts for everything, but when I enter the board, the posts/threads are not there. Any ideas on why my threads/posts appear to be there, but invisible?