Error message when moving vB forum to new host

[druther]

I am still using vBulletin 3.6.8 because the hosting service I recently quit was using a versions of PHP/MySQL that were too old to allow a vB upgrade. I just completed a move to my new hosting service which uses MySQL 4.1.9

Before uploading my vB forum on the new server, I opened up config.php locally with Dreamweaver and changed the four basic settings: the dbname, servername (my new host uses a separate server), username and password. I then uploaded my forum files, complete, to the proper directory in my website on the new server.

Problem: Now, when I try to log into my discussion forum online, I get this useless message: "The database has encountered a problem."

When I log into the myPHPAdmin utility provided by my hosting service, this is the only message that shows up: "No tables found in database."

I'm not sure where to go from here.

I have considered deleting my whole 3.6.8 forum from the server and doing a clean new install of 3.7.3, but then I would lose all the customizing I have done to the appearance of my forum, as well the members list and their postings. Which particular files contain this information and could be kept to avoid that problem?

Any suggestions?

[Steve Machol]

That means you have an empty database. You need to backup and restore the db from the old server to the new.

The only consistently reliable method of backing up and restoring a database is with shell access via telnet or ssh. This is because backing up with a PHP script like that in the Admin CP or phpMyAdmin can result in PHP timeout errors and an incomplete backup file.

Please see the instructions here:

Backup:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_backup

Restore:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_restore

If you don't have telnet or SSH access, some people have reported success with these scripts:

MySQLDumper:

http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php

MySQLHotxcopy:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134821&highlight=mysqlhotcopy