Upgrading from 2.3 to 2.6 to 2.7

I kept putting off upgrading because we weren’t really doing much with the site. However, we have accumulated quite a few entries and wish to preserve the content while upgrading if possible.

So finally, after hearing so many good things about 2.7, I decided to upgrade. I used the script installation from the Control Panel of my hosting company (startlogic) to do the upgrade. It told me that I needed to go to 2.6 first, then do a second upgrade to 2.7.

Anyway, the installation basically dropped all of my data and created a new database. And wouldn’t even let me log in. it didn’t copy over my credentials. My hunch is that it happened during teh database upgrade portion, since it seems that the structure changes from version to version.

So, then I had to restore everything. So now I’m running 2.3 again, but still want to upgrade to 2.7. Can anyone help me?

If I do it manually, how do I upgrade the database to be compatible with the current version of WP?

Thanks