HELP! Can’t view install.php (errors), no luck with installation.

I’m trying to install WordPress 1.5.2 on my server (in the public_html/words folder) but I can’t run the words/wp-admin/install.php either from the browser address bar, or from within my FTP program. If I run it from the browser, my error is:

There doesn’t seem to be a wp-config.php file. I need this before we can get started. Need more help? We got it. You can create a wp-config.php file through a web interface, but this doesn’t work for all server setups. The safest way is to manually create the file.

The thing is, I installed the WP-CONFIG file in the PUBLIC_HTML folder (above WORDS). Even when it was inside WORDS, and inside WP-ADMIN, there were still problems).

I also can’t create the WP-CONFIG file through the web interface.

If I try to access INSTALL.PHP through my FTP, I get this:

require_once(‘../wp-config.php’);
require_once(‘./upgrade-functions.php’);

$guessurl = str_replace(‘/wp-admin/install.php?step=2’, ”, ‘https://’ . $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’] . dirname($_SERVER[‘PHP_SELF’]) );

if (isset($_GET[‘step’]))
$step = $_GET[‘step’];
else
$step = 0;
header( ‘Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8’ );
?>

hide_errors();
$installed = $wpdb->get_results(“SELECT * FROM $wpdb->users”);
if ($installed) die(__(‘
Already Installed

You appear to have already installed WordPress. To reinstall please clear your old database tables first.
‘) . ”);
$wpdb->show_errors();

switch($step) {

case 0:
?>

ReadMe documentation at your leisure.’), ‘../readme.html’); ?>

….plus a whole lot of other (error) gobbledegook.

I’m not very technically minded with servers and PHP, so the simplest explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.