Can't uninstall SMF 1.0.7 to re-install it.

[adrianclerical]

SMF Version: SMF 1.0.7
Somehow my forum got messed up - most likely hacked by an ex-member who got banned for being abusive.
Anyhow, I've tried the repair.php option, but it wouldn't touch the problem. With what little knowledge I have I've tinkered a bit here and there but all to no avail.
I have copies of the attachments folder and the databases on another directory for safety.
Really it seems to me that a clean fresh install is the best option. However, my Fantastico can't uninstall SMF from the root directory (where it should be).
Can someone please tell me:

(a) what other files/folders I should make copies of so that the forum doesn't lose any posts/attachments/personal messages etc.
(b) what files I need to manually remove so that Fantastico will perform a clean installation
(c) is my idea of doing a fresh installation the best way of proceding?

I'd be grateful if any advice could be in plain english so I can understand what I need to do....

My apologies if I've posted this in the wrong section....

Thanks in advance for any help/advice

[redone]

Well, the easiest way is probably to copy everything especially if you have mods installed as otherwise you would need to re-install them. Slightly quicker is a clean install of SMF and then just to re-install your mods. Personally I would look to see if I could repair the one I had rather than messing around with a new install and pointing to your old database.

Can you post any errors or describe why the repair_settings.php file does not work for you? If all else fails you could just manually install your forum in another folder /forum2 make sure you copy your attatchments directory across and point the site to the database on the same old server.

I wouldn't worry about Fantastico to be honest as its probably more reliable to do it manually.

[adrianclerical]

Thanks for your reply.

I finally managed it - I manually copied (FTP'd) all the necessary files over, ran the install.php script and it seems everything is finally working ok.