I seem to have a search term disability so this might be something covered elsewhere. I haven't touched my installation for 6 years and am running 2.0.7. I'm thinking about upgrading to 2.0.18. I'm paranoid to just do a large upgrade. Seems like I got in trouble a decade ago and had to start from scratch. My question is... is it possible to just do a total new install of 2.0.18 and then is there some utility to move my 2.0.7 database to the new 2.0.18 data base? I suppose I can backup my existing version but I don't trust myself getting that right. I'd rather have two versions and I can test the new one before turning off the old one. The good news is I don't have any mod or hacks (that I remember anyway.) Thx.
You can do patch updates one minor version at a time, or you can do the large upgrade with one go. These should both work just fine.
What you are suggesting would really be overly complicating things, even though possible.
I would suggest trying to update through the package manager first, then if there are issues we can think of alternative approaches.
https://custom.simplemachines.org/upgrades/
Since you don't have any mods or hacks I'd go with the large upgrade package. :)
Personally, so would I - but I thought the package updates would probably be an easier entry point.