Why do I need to make a new site for upgrading? I have many external links

[daneh]

Ok, so I have a site running 1.3.8 right now and am a bit hesitant to upgrade because I have a ton of links pointing to the website. Reading the upgrade docs, it recommends installing the new version in a new folder (cart for example).

Is there a better way to upgrade than to install in a new folder? I do not want to install in a new folder. I would much prefer to have the store in the root folder like it is now.

Because the store is online and active, I cannot afford much downtime in the event that the upgrade goes bad.

Any suggestions?

[DrByte]

The "new" folder is JUST A TEMPORARY store, a staging area, for you to TEST the upgrade. That is, to do ALL your upgrade steps in a SAFE place so your live store can keep running while you prepare all the new files and settings which you will LATER move to the live site when you actually (re-) do the upgrade to your live store.

After you're done the upgrade to the staging area, you redo it (very quick) on the live site, and then you can delete the staging area.

If you're skilled enough to do it all directly on your live site without doing any testing or updating of addons and ensuring compatibility with all your customizations, then feel free to do so. Just remember that we always recommended to NOT do it that way.