How do I download my exisiting site to my computer for testing, upgrading etc?

I want to download my exisiting site to my computer for testing, upgrading etc. I prepp:lamo:ed my system as per the Zen Cart manual now I am begging for instructions on downloading my site and database. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Your PC will need XAMPP (or similar). Goh Koon Hoek's book referrs to XAMPP. So set this up first.

There are TWO "SIDES" to your ZC shop:

1. The files
2. The database

You will need to FTP all the FILES to your local drive

You will need to export a "copy" of your database, then install that copy into a database on your PC (using XAMPP).

Follow instructions in the manual to configure the installation. You will definitely need edits to the two configure.php files, for example.

Use FTP for all files
and phpmyadmin for your DB
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=103

Personally I use EasyPHP for all my localhost development needs (then again, I run Windows)

Anyway, one more tip in addition to what the others said above -

on your local machine, after you import your database, do a search (in phpmyadmin) to see if any configuration keys still contain references to local filesystem paths from your live web server.
(e.g. /home/youraccount/... or whatever)

For example, configuration keys like STORE_PAGE_PARSE_TIME_LOG and SESSION_WRITE_DIRECTORY might contain such paths.

in that case you'll need to edit them (in phpmyadmin) and replace them with the corresponding locations on your machine, after your zencart files are in place.

Good luck

Thanks for your advise, but still no go. I stalled a fresh Zen Cart and no problem. Are there any other files that I should look at or is the whole deal in the 2 configuration files and the DB?

Well that depends then - what symptoms/error messages are you getting?

I use EasyPHP rather than XAMPP but the idea is the same (most of the differences are "under the hood")

Did you set up the db info correctly in both configure files too?
(Oh, and check that your browser is grabbing the pages from http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1 - rather than directly from your filesystem e.g. file:///c:/whatever... may sound obvious but I've managed to forget this a few times.)

There are 2 related FAQ articles which may help:
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=99
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=100

But, as bodyjewelry has mentioned, it's really tough to help you when all we can do is guess what you mean by "no go". Specific symptoms will help ...

there are a number of modules which help back up your site including even a site backup(sorry cant remember the names of the modules)