Sorry to hear about this, doesn't sound like you were treated in a very professional way. Can you describe what is included on the DVD ? It sounds like it's just a concrete5 template. Hopefully you should be able to simply install a fresh copy of concrete5 and then install the template included on the DVD. Depending on your technical skills, you might have to get some help from a web designer to do this (I probably wouldn't do business with the last designer you used).

Hi Marissa,

This sounds like the database isn't completely restored. PageTypes is a very core table to concrete5, so I'd suggest that either the restore of the database didn't complete properly, or the original database dump this 'web designer' gave you wasn't correct/complete in the first place. It unfortunately doesn't sound like one of the common issues people have with transferring and re-setting up concrete5 sites.

I'll be honest here, this sounds like a real mess. Even if you got it all working now, this could be a potential time bomb of problems, as you'll not have available the person who built it in the first place, and who knows what damage the virus side of things has done.

If I were in your position I'd probably salvage as many resources from what you have (images, documents, theme files maybe) and look at building the site (or getting someone to build the site) again.

Sorry to read that you've stuffed around like this!

hello again I have figured most of it out now but still having problems! Can someone please help?
I have imported the files into mysql I have installed concrete5 but it is still failing to connect to the new server and none of there tech support can help! They say I need to get a new web developer but with the experience with the first I really would like to figure it out on my own with of coarse the help from some of you! Can any one help me?

Thanks

By "still failing to connect to the new server", do you mean that concrete5 can't connect to the database?

Are you getting on the screen:
Unable to connect to database.
A database error occurred while processing this request.
?

If so, it means that you aren't connecting to the database with the right details. You'd need to have a look at /config/site.php and make sure the username, password, and database name match those that you created (or were given) when you re-imported the database.

Three main steps of transferring a site are:
- Copying all files to new server
- Setting up a new database (and associated user) on the new server and importing the database dump
- Editing /config/site.php to have the correct database login details for the new database on the new server

Im not sure, that is what the tech support was telling me that it was saying. I did call again to a new tech support with the new server and he was able to get it up but it is still under the web developer files! So now my problem is the web developer refuses to give me the administration user name and password through concrete5 so I still can not get in there and maintain it or update it!! So now what do I do?? How am I going to update it now?? I don't have that information!
Is there anywhere on croncret5 that I can prove that I am the owner of the website so I can get in there and update and maintain the website without him giving me his username and password? Also there is malware on several of the pages so I need to get those off of there before it can go live again! We have had several complaints of members computers crashing or they can not go to site because of the threat! Can someone please help me?
Thanks

Marissa,
I would be inclined to agree with Mesuva that especially considering the malware & virus issues, you might be looking at a time bomb down the road. Are you particularly attached to the design concept of your original designer? is there a lot of content you can get at?
If you want to do a fresh - perfect install and then do all the content upload yourself, I think that would probably be the best bet.
I use Simple Scripts to do installs of Concrete5. I've done it on Hostgator and Bluehost - both with great success.
Then once your concrete5 core site is installed, you can check out the themes in the marketplace and change the look of it pretty easily. Then start loading up your content and images.
If you need a good developer on the backend talk to 2by2 host and they are pretty smart, fast and customer service oriented and can get to the root of most problems quickly - but you would need to pay their fees.

Oh and I just saw this on another post on how to gain control of your admin:
http://forestmist.org/2012/07/concrete5-instant-admin/...

Job posted a very thorough howto on recovering a lost admin account including several different methods and notes on when each is applicable.

I think you need to find a developer to help you here as there is only so much that can be done from the forums.

There are ways to reset the admin password concrete5, so that's not a massive issue, but the malware is a real concern and needs to be fixed by a developer.

Thank you all for your replies I really appreciate it! I do know that when you check the site with suricheck or something like that it does not show up but again the dvd did show up with viruses. I don't know who to believe anymore! If there was anyway for me to get the files open and build a new website that is really what I want! Start fresh we paid several thousands of $$ to have this site built and we feel that we should be able to use it for what it was built for! But I am to the point that if I could just get the files open so I could copy and paste them to another new site that is really what I want!! There are almost 1000 horses in the database with much information on them that I can't lose. That is why I am really trying to get this going! Can someone tell me how I could get those files open to use?? I do know that my new servers can not help me with that because I have already asked them!

Thanks again

Marissa

You mentioned that the original developer will not give you the password but s/he must have given you FTP access to the server or else you wouldn't have been able to upload the DVD contents to the new site. If you have FTP access, you can reset the admin password and get access to your site.

UPDATE: I re-read the thread and I now realize that the site that's active is on the old server. If you own the domain, you might consider sending the web developer a short note from your lawyer. If the domain is actually registered in the developer's name then they own it, not you.

Just to be clear, the content of your website is not contained in the files themselves. The files are just containers that get filled with the content from the database. If you are unsure of the integrity of the database then this might be a dead end. In order to use that content (without cutting and pasting 1000 pages of horse data) you need a developer to create a new theme that's able to read the database properly to pull the content into the new pages.

Specifically was the error saying the table "PageTypes" was missing, or was it "pagetypes".

If the imported data table was created using the installer in windows, it might not work in linux, because linux is case sensitive, unlike windows.

The way to check this is to look inside the database using a tool such as phpmyadmin, which is usually located athttp://www.yoursite.com/phpmyadmin... , However, this differs server to server and your host will be able to guide you in this.

Sam

All thanks again for helping me! I do have the site up but still trying to learn all and understand it! I have posted some other ?? that I had in different areas.

Thanks again for all your help!

marissa