products gone in server switch?

im using the most current version on ZC now i switched from a hosting server to a dedicated server i backed up my old mysql database and inserted into my dedicated server by importing the old tables into the new ones i got all my categories back but no products are in them by this i mean no pictures with description does that mena i have to relink all 4,000 or so products? and if so then why did i back up my database if only to redo this work? please help if so im gonna have to bite the bullet

This is not normal. Moving your database via backup and restore is normal and should allow all products to move across.

Did you backup the database in one go, or did you move selected tables?

What are you seeing in your products table if you look at it via phpMyAdmin or similar?

i see all the field are full and that of of the products are in that table i did back up the DB in one go and i also copied over the products table i thought it would have something to do with the products to catergory table