Install corrupted: how to proceed?

[pixelwrangler]

I have a Zen Cart under testing that has Categories Dressing installed, and I have made a lot of styling changes to various pages.

It's become obvious to me that this installation has somehow gotten corrupted.

The db is OK.

How to proceed? Should I install OVER the current version? I can do this from the server by specifying to OVERWRITE existing files. This would preserve my custom template, but not the other files I have changed.

My plan is to copy out the various CSS files first, and the template files, then just reinstall. The new install should be able to use the same db just fine.

Ideas?

FWIW, I did a test install of a fresh copy of ZC on another server, and by comparing with my corrupted install, it's obvious that LOT of files and folders are just not there on the corrupted version.

[dbltoe]

If you can get a copy of your files downloaded, winmerge your changes into a clean install fileset and upload that to your server.
BACKUP FIRST

[pixelwrangler]

Thanks. I was able to pull a good backup off of my server. The funny thing is, the ZC install is totally functional, as far as I have been able to determine. I can add categories/products, images, etc. What I can't do is to add much of anything else: I really need Image Handler, and that won't install.

A comparison of the file trees between my new install on another server shows MANY things missing on the corrupted ZC.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a "winmerge"? I THINK it is the option on my hosting server control panel where I can unzip the ZenCart ZIP archive to the file tree.

BTW, I went and had a look with the Web Developer extension for FF, and it seems that virtually everything I did was in the CSS of my custom template, so that seems promising.

[dbltoe]

winmerge is a free comparison software that will allow you to "merge" your changes into a clean install.
IFyou have touched nothing but override files and the css, you should be able to ftp the good 1.3.8a files to the server and have it work.

I Like firebug the best.

BACKUP

[pixelwrangler]

I THINK that I just made styling changes - fonts, colors, positioning, etc. But I also modified the layout, mostly to eliminate boxes I don't need. That was fairly easy to do, and took virtually no time, as I recall.

I have all of my graphics and photos on my office workstations, so reloading those would be simple.

I just backed up everything to space on the hosting server. So, I think I'm going to unzip the fresh install files using the "merge" feature I mentioned. If it doesn't work out, I can just reload my backup again and try winmerge.