Additional SMF Install for 2nd Forum, or Use Existing Install? (2.0.9)

[eldontyrrell]

Hello all,

Returning semi-newbie with question I can't quite track down using Search. Begging a million pardons in advance for possible mis-use of terminology.

I currently have a properly functioning forum website (recently upgraded to 2.0.9 thanks in no small part to the "Error_in_mod_installation" file!). The forum directory and all relevant SMF/PHP files reside in their proper places in a subdirectory below the server root level. (Again, this thing works fine.)

I want to create another, completely separate forum website on the same server. I've purchased the domain name, but I haven't created the database yet because I didn't want to begin the process the wrong (or unnecessarily slowest) way.

My question is, would it be best to do the SMF install process as if this second forum was brand-new? In other words, to proceed as if I didn't already have the "program files" (from the original forum website install) already on the server?

OR, should I create the new database (using cPanel or phpMyAdmin) for the new domain, then somehow "use" the already-existing SMF install to drive the new forum? Like, maybe somehow use repair_settings.php for the new forum to point to the already-installed program files? (Can you even *do* that?)

Throughput or user overload is not a concern, in case people worried about over-taxing that one SMF install. I guess I don't know if it's easier to just upload everything as if the 2nd forum is the "only" forum, or if it's quicker (if even possible) to just point the 2nd forum's settings to that original forum's SMF install.

Again, apologies for poor terminology. Any and all advice welcome!

[Kindred]

if the two forums are to be completely separate, then make them fully separate installed. different databases, different files.

[eldontyrrell]

Kindred,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Certainly I had intended to use separate databases, but the original thought was whether I could save the "time and effort" of installing SMF on the server again...

...until I realized that it would probably take just as long to point everything in "Settings" to the original SMF install (residing in another directory, up two levels) as it would to simply do a brand-new upload & install. Mark as "Solved"!

[Kindred]

Actually, you could not do it that way, even if you had wanted to do so

[eldontyrrell]

K,

Sorry I hadn't seen your second response. And yeah, since you mention it, I no longer even know why I would have thought it *was* -- I mean, I'm no expert, but I've poked around under the hood enough that I should have realized that...   :-|