Hi All
I have had a successful zencart 1.3.7 store up and running now for 2 years and I am now looking to upgrade the site to 1.3.8a. Now as the site is highly customised with a fair few modules added I am reluctant to upgrade the site and compare using winmerge - as I know I will be there forever comparing the files.

As the design of the site will also be changing - I am in the process of installing a fresh version of 1.3.8a locally on my machine with a view to finalising the new site locally and then uploading to my live hosting.

I have a couple of questions:
1. Once the new site is finished - do I simply delete the old live site and upload my new files? Will doing it that way retain my customers records and products?

2. Should I patch my database up to 1.3.8 then dleted my old site and upload my new site?

3. Can I tuck away my new site in a seperate folder and do a complete new install and create a new DB but 'hide' it away on the server? (Thing is then there will be 2 stores running in the same space - that cant be good surely?)

Im asking in advance as the site has been very successful and I want to minimise as much downtime as possible.

Many Thanks in advance!