Thanks.

The upgrade process is the same, but the 7.3 is a lot different and has many new options. If you can I would try installing it locally on your system and playing with it before installing it on your live site. That way there won't be any surprises with user/group configurations, etc..

I have learned how to back up the database but how do I easiest backup the rest of the files?

Should I just download the entire forum to my hard disc?

Thanks

Hi Morgan,

What host are you on Linux or Windows and what type of access do you have? You can FTP the files to your local hard drive for testing after you've exported the DB to a text file.

Haven't tried it but maybe one of the Admin tools on your site will allow a direct file copy down/export or you might be able to do a FULL site backup and download that locally (that is actually better, then if your ISP has a drive failure or something like that then you have a backup of your site)

Ntdoc,
I'm on a Linux shared server, FTP access, sounds as a long download as I'm on the slowest ADSL and have about 215000 messages in the forum. it is about all about 400MB. Would not know how to fix this well kno how to download but not get it to work locally.

Well without SSH then you'd have to go into your control panel phpMyAdmin and backup your DB. Then FTP it to your local box.

Here is a link on doing it (just Googled it, you can search for other ideas on how to do it if needed. I use SSH so haven't used phpMyAdmin in a long time myself).

How to backup your Mysql database with phpMyAdmin

Then using WAMP it makes it pretty easy to setup and test your forum locally.