xampplite / xampp issues

[Alundra]

Well I had xampplite installed and working, but every now and then it would freak out and not let me into phpmyadmin at all... so I would go into the files and search for my password and stuff and make sure it was all good...which it was, but it still wouldnt let me in.

I got tired of it and installed xampp...which does the same thing for me .

There is still an empty xampplite folder on my computer, but what happened to the database? Is there any way to get it back? I ask because there was a lot of important stuff in there that I really would like to have back, lest hours of work is lost.

The other issue I have, still, is that cache seems to never clear for me; even on my older computer it didnt. My older computer was Windows XP (it's fried now), the one I use currently has Vista home premium.

I mean, I would really like to be using xampp for my production, but I'm forced to do it online because the changes I make are ignored .