Will I lose data if I reinstall?

You data is kept in a database as far as the text of the posts/pages, the images and other “uploads” are kept in an their appropriate folder based on your settings. Download those and re-upload them into the “new” install should work as long as you use the same upload folder(s). Most bloggers tend to use the defaults so it should be straight forward.

Make sure to get the details out of your wp-config.php file so you can recreate the same config file for the “new” install, which should then simply pick up your database and your blog will be there.

This of course should work as long as the data in your database or the database itself is not creating these errors.

You may be able to simply export your blog content via the Dashboard; then re-install and import it back into your “new” blog as an option if you have to go right back to creating a new database as well. You may still need to manually recover/re-upload any media files.

You might also consider quickly installing a “backup” plugin and grabbing a full backup of your blog that way as well. Also, you will lose all of your links, but that is a relatively small price to pay to save six months of blogging.

Hope that helps some …

Hi Cais,

Thanks for the quick reply!
I don’t have access to my dashboard anymore (it gives the same fatal error message that my blog gets). So I’m assuming that means I’ll need to just scrap it all and start over with a new install. You mentioned the info in my wp-config, can I just upload that existing file and overwrite the blank one that will be in the new install of WP? Will I be able to recover my key for Stats so they stay the same?

Just curious, did you happen to look at the error message I’m getting? Do I really need to reinstall WP entirely, as opposed to trying to fix whatever the error is?

Thanks!

Update:

I’ve resolved my problem. Here is what I did in case anyone else has the same issue…

My blog gave me this error message;

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare _wp_http_get_object() (previously declared in /hermes/bosweb/web043/b431/ipw.theoccasionalcake/public_html/capecodbranding/blog/wp-includes/http.php:1883) in /hermes/bosweb/web043/b431/ipw.theoccasionalcake/public_html/capecodbranding/blog/wp-includes/http.php on line 1889

I renamed my WP folder (which I called ‘blog’) so I could save it and grab any files I needed later (I renamed it “WP” and the date). Then I uploaded a new WP folder in the same place with the same name as my original folder, ‘blog’ (uploaded via FTP, I use Dreamweaver). Once it was up, I added my original wp-config.php from the old file (because, like Cais said above, it had my blog’s info so I could access my account). I also copied and pasted my theme folder from the old file to the new one.

These were the only things I added from the old folder to the new one and my site came back up fully intact. I didn’t lose any images, articles, plugins, etc.

Hope this helps if anyone else encounters this problem!

And thanks Cais for your help, it put me in the right direction!

Thank You. I’m glad I could help.