Ok, so this wasn't clever...
I was without internet for a few days so had been working on a website that I had set up offline in XAMPP (on Window's Vista, the website uses Joomla and Virtuemart). I ran out of things I could do without having internet so decided I would start on another website, also offline. I'm pretty new to XAMPP and Joomla so thought I would just be able to create another folder, put another installation of Joomla in it and create another database for it to run off. Which I done and it was all looking good for the new site. The problem is, when I went back to view my original site, which I've spent a lot of time creating, I now get the message 'Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL', same if I try and access the administrator area of the site.
So I guess I stuffed up. If I open up the XAMPP control panel and try and go to the MySQL admin page then I also get the message 'phpMyAdmin tried to connect to the MySQL server, and the server rejected the connection. You should check the host, username and password in your configuration and make sure that they correspond to the information given by the administrator of the MySQL server.'
From having a bit of a Google search, I'm thinking that the old site no longer works because it's now pointing to the new database and all the settings are wrong? (hence the username and password are incorrect). Unfortunately I have no idea how to fix this. My problem also is that I can't actually remember what the database user name and password were... And can't access the admin page to check or change these.....
Help! I really don't want to lose the old site as I've spent a load of time getting it right. If anyone knows a way to recover the site I would be extremely grateful!