Forum not working

[ibab]

I've had SMF forum up for around 4 months now and its been working just fine until now. This morning when I tried to connect to the forums, it gave me this error.

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Notice: Undefined variable: boarddir in /home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/index.php on line 57

Notice: Undefined variable: sourcedir in /home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/index.php on line 62

Warning: require_once(QueryString.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/index.php on line 62

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'QueryString.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/index.php on line 62
I don't know what this is and what can I do for it.
I tried opening the index.php file and see whats on the line 57 and 62, and it appears like it fails to open the QueryString.php and others when theres the sourcedir . 'filename', but when I change it to just 'Sources/QuerySting.php' it doesn't display the same errors, but still displays a few.

I didn't want to go and ruin the files by my edits, so I am just looking for help from here. So how can I get the forums back working? Do I need to reinstall the forums or what?

[Illori]

can you verify that your settings.php file has content in it? if not copy your settings_bak.php file to your settings.php file.

[ibab]

Both, settings.php and settings_bak.php files seems to be empty. What does this mean?

[Illori]

somehow they got emptied, there is a somewhat simple way to restore them if you know the information, take a look at What is repair_settings.php? and see if you can fill in the blanks, if you can not you can ask your host to restore a backup of those files, or you can if you have a backup.

[ibab]

I tried using it, but for some reason it doesn't do anything. Whenever I press on the save settings it just empties all the fields.
I noticed this error on top of the page though, may this be causing the settings repair tool not to work?

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Some settings are not being shown because the MySQL connection information is incorrect.

Also, I forgot to mention that the SMF version I am using is SMF 2 RC5. The repair tool seems to be for SMF 1.1?

EDIT: I sent message to the provider, and they say they don't keep backups, therefore I should keep backups, but I haven't taken any backups. What can I do now?

[Illori]

that tool works just fine for 2.0 as well as 1.1.*. what happens if you just enter in the database connection information to start and save it?

[ibab]

I found out I had a backup I had made while I was still using RC4, which is pretty old, but it happens like its working somehow.
However, now I don't have those errors anymore, but new ones appear.

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Warning: require_once(/home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/SourcesQueryString.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/index.php on line 62

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/SourcesQueryString.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home2/nextgenm/public_html/forum/index.php on line 62

[Illori]

use the repair_settings.php file linked above again, one or more of your paths does not end with a / most likely your Sources directory as the above error has SourcesQueryString.php instead of Sources/QueryString.php.

[ibab]

Alright, it was giving an error about a database not existing after editing those / after the paths, but then I just changed the prefix and it appears to be working.
Thank you for the help!