OK guys I'm having a complete mare with this one.
The idea is to create a duplicate site so I can test the upgrade and check there will be no problems.
Originally I had created a duplicate forum with database on my existing server but for some reason the copied forum kept point back to the original site. So I opened up a new account on a different server so I had a clean host to work from.
Copied the old forum over to the new hoster, set up a new database, got it all working as it should.
Ran the update fine, completed without errors but when I went to test the site I could get nothing up except: 'Unable to load the 'main_above' template.'
So following the instructions from this thread:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=261684.0
I managed to get the site up.
Now the menu bar has totally disappeared. I have put quite a few hours into this and am now not confident that if i upgrade my original site it will go smoothly.
Can anybody help???
My test site is:
http://swapsies.nxserve.net/forum/
My original site is:
http://www.swapsiesuk.co.uk
I can''t load your test site, but my advice to you is make a thorough backup of your db before you upgrade your main forum.
I couldn't get the test site to load either. If it's a test site, I would just refresh all the files. When you upgrade to 2.0 you will be overwriting your old forum files anyway.
OK guys, I have managed to upgrade. I installed 1.1.8 on a different server, then uploaded the SQL file into the installation. This created all boards, threads and post's. I then followed through with the upgrade. Seem's this time it completed successfully.
I wanted to try and keep the site looking like the original but with the added functions of the new system. Unfortunatly the theme isn't supported but it does seem to be working. Let hope the real upgrade isn't as hard as this.
Great, glad you got it working. At least you got some practice so you will be ready when the time comes to do the real thing. I'll mark this as solved.