Upgrade problems

[ravynw34]

Usually I have smooth upgrades but this is extremely perplexing. I have never seen anything like this.
Upgrading from version 1.3.5 to current 1.5.1.

When installing in the root either by upgrade or fresh install the site takes me back to zen cart not installed. This is after the successful install page at the end of upgrade or fresh install. This is happening only in the root directory. I did a fresh install into a sub directory /store and the install is fine and took the db smoothly.

Here is what happens on upgrading or fresh install on root. Normal process all seems to go smooth, success page and normal delete install folder and files etc. Visit site and it tells you to install zencart as it is not installed.

There are a set of folders and files that keep reappearing into root. zc_install_999. I have deleted these numerous times and each time these files reappear. the date on them is 2008.
The original person who installed the 1.3.5 version of the site was a university student. Other then that I have no other details as to how and what they did when installing.
Any ideas?

[DrByte]

Chances are the original files have a permissions-mask or ownership setting that are preventing you from being able to actually change/delete them. Thus they seem to be "re-appearing" (when in fact they weren't actually ever deleted, despite your FTP program not telling you otherwise).

Use your hosting control panel to adjust file ownership and/or permissions values. And maybe also for doing the deletions.

And get the hosting company involved if the files still keep "re-appearing" or "not deleting" or not being updated properly by zc_install.

[ravynw34]

That was it. Thanks. Got it fixed.

[ravynw34]

In case anyone else has this issue I wanted to post and update.
Once we were able to get rid of the strange zc-Install_999 folder and files the site was able to be installed in root.
We did run into another issue. The prices from the old database were way way off. The db turned out to be fine.
The resolution was found in the /images/ directory.
There were about 16 .php files within that directory. When viewing they varied in content but all were either complete redirect to adult type websites or they were connection files to other sites of that nature or warez sites.
Checking the images folder is always a good idea. Sometimes its the silly things we over look.
Thanks again Dr. Byte for your help yesterday. Much appreciated.

[DrByte]

Clearly your site has also been hacked at some point, and a thorough inspection+cleanup hasn't been done.
You should still do a thorough inspection and cleanup of EVERY aspect of the site. Some of the main areas to focus on are described here: http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...ing_From_Hacks