Products database file location?

I just recently jacked up my site after installing the 1.3.8 upgrade. Unfortunately I didn't make a back up, and of course my hosting company had issues with all of their back ups so now I'm basically starting from scratch. what I wanted to know is there a database of all of the products that I can copy over from my old store so I don't have to input everything all over. I'm using a custom template. Thanks.

The product information in your old database can be copied across to the new one, but this is not as simple as copying a file. Data needs to be extracted from one database and imported into the other.

This can be done by sophisticated database management tools, or exported to and reimported as csv or xml files, or most commonly for people with limited database experience, as a SQL backup from one database and a restore to the new one.

Even then, I'd recommend taking the whole database. The products information is made up of a number (close to 20) inter-related tables that need to be consistent. It's easier and safer to take the whole database and throw away data you don't want to migrate, such as customers and orders.

Thanks for your reply. I thought it would probably be more difficult than just copying a file over but i was hoping it would be just a simple copy :( . Would the database be located in the store directory or is it separetly kept on my hosting company's server?

It is separate as part of your hosts MySQL server, which is often on a physically separate server (or server cluster) than your webspace and certainly not available to you via the file system.