I have forgotten everything ...

[stefanaalten]

Hi,

It has been a few years since I last looked at XAMPP and my web site (I use Joomla 2.5 to create it) and am struggling to pick up where I left off.

I used to edit my site locally before uploading to my web host, but now when I try to access my local site (called "joomlabeta") via localhost/htdocs/joomlabeta I get an "object not found" error.

It might be due to incorrect file locations but I can't work out how to check/what to do about it.

I have C (internal HDD) and J (external HDD) [drive], with xampp folders in both, and htdocs folders in both. I already had xampp v1.7.3 in J:\xampp, and before starting again with my web site I thought it best to upgrade xampp first, so downloaded xampp v1.8.3, and that seems to have gone into C:\xampp. My htdocs folder containing the joomlabeta site is in J:\xampp\htdocs\joomlabeta. XAMPP control panel reports everything is running fine, Apache, MySQL, etc. and just typing localhost (or localhost/xampp) brings up the "Welcome to XAMPP for Windows" welcome page.

I appreciate there might be a few steps / bits of info required before I'm back to where I started, so would be very grateful for a bit of help to "get back in the saddle".

(I'm kicking myself for not keeping up to date now - I have forgotten everything and have to start from scratch again!)

[stefanaalten]

Update: I have renamed J:\xampp to J:\xampp.old, uninstalled XAMPP (which had been installed in C:\xammp) via the uninstaller provided with XAMPP, and deleted C:\xampp. So that should have taken me back to square one.

I then installed XAMPP 1.8.3 and made sure it was installed in J:\xampp (my external drive). XAMPP reports it is working (localhost/xampp: "Congratulations, you have successfully installed XAMPP") and on the XAMPP control panel I can start Apache, MySQL, FileZilla, Mercury and Tomcat - all five report "green".

I then copied contents from the htdocs folder in the old XAMPP to the new one, i.e. from J:\xampp.old\htdocs\ to J:\xampp\htdocs, and then tried to open one of the sites and get this error: "Database connection error (2): Could not connect to MySQL.Database connection error (2): Could not connect to MySQL."

Any ideas/help would be very much appreciated as I'm stuck on this one. Many thanks in advance!

[smorytko]

Perhaps you haven't set a password for the MySQL database?

http://veerasundar.com/blog/2009/01/how-to-change-the-root-password-for-mysql-in-xampp/

[Nobbie]

"Database connection error (2): Could not connect to MySQL.Database connection error (2): Could not connect to MySQL."

That means, you (once) configured your Joomla Installation to work with a certain database. If you forgot everything, it is getting difficult, because here nobody can know what you specified years ago.

Additionally, if you removed the old Xampp Installation and installed a new one, you probably might have deleted the old database, which results in a total loss of all Joomla data. You should restore the old Xampp installation, otherwise your Joomla installation wont work anymore.

[stefanaalten]

Hi,

Thanks. I still - fortunately - have a note of my old passwords and accounts etc. Also, I did not completely delete the old XAMPP installation - I just renamed the folder to "xampp.old", so the data is still all there. I have now uninstalled XAMPP 1.8.3, and deleted the folder J:\xampp. I then renamed J:\xampp.old back to J:\xampp, and launched the control panel, and was able to start Apached, MySQL, etc. By trying to "upgrade" XAMPP first I somehow messed things up, but I now I have everything back again. Phew!

[emperor]

You have to also copy inside mysql/data/ xxx the folder with the data for my sql.
The message you receiving is that the system can't find the database.

Now, you should keep in your mind that after copy-paste the data probably it won't work, because of the different versions of php and mysql. The right thing is not to 'upgrade' in your case, but to install from the begin the exact same version that you had.