Clarification on Multisite Installation

yup. i’ve read this front to back and every related post. but they just don’t seem to address what i’m wanting to know. so i’m asking for some clarity please, not a flame-fest.

here’s what i did and what happened. then you can advise how to fix.

0. running WAMP
1. extracted wordpress zip and copied it to two directories, like so:
– client1/blog
– client2/blog
2. created databases for both clients with PHPMyAdmin like so
– c1_site
– c2_site
3. created a Log/Pass for each database
4. edited the wp-config files in each of the client’s blog directories to point to their databases and relevant log/pass.
5. ran client1/blog/wp-admin/install.php with successful result.
6. ran client2/blod/wp-admin/install.php and got this error:
ERROR: PHP NOT RUNNING
< a full two pages of additional text including ‘it appears you’ve already installed wordpress’ >

so. three questions:

1. what the hell happened? of course PHP is running!
2. how do i fix this and get client2 installed and running so i can develop for them
3. if i switch to a single database with different table prefixes, how do i move it from local testing server to production server: extract only relevant prefixed tables and upload to client’s server DB?

i’m eyeballing multisite, but again, i don’t see anything on how to migrate it out to separate client’s. this looks more like something to support a bunch of sites pointing to a hub rather than a development platform for multiple wordpress clients…

thanks for your time.

WR!