None of DB visible after upgrade from 1.3.0.2 to 1.3.7

Help please. Last time I upgraded, while it took a couple of days, it did not entail near the frustration that I'm having upgrading from 1.3.0.2 to 1.3.7. I thought the upgrading process was supposed to be improved and easier with the newer releases...apparently not.

I followed the installation/upgrade instructions exactly and when I try to find my categories, products, customers, order history or anything else that's in the DB from my present site, it's no where to be found...e.g. in admin, I click on Catalog>Categories/Products and none of my old categories or products are there...same with manufacturers, customers, etc. After loading my old DB, I performed the DB upgrade using zc_install, but to no avail. I've already completely deleted and re-installed twice and I'm ready to pull my hair out. An upgrade is useless to me if I have to go back and hand enter hundreds of customers and 1500+ products.

Why is the DB transition so difficult with this upgrade? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If the cart and db are both on 1.3.7, you should be able to import the backup of your db from phpMyAdmin. After that you should be good to go.

Mary Ellen...I had already done what you suggested and it did not work...I guess I'll just have to stick with 1.3.0.2...I spent alot of time customizing my present site and this upgrade seems to be turning into a nightmare...and I consider myself to be an intermediate-level "zenner".

I don't know what to say. I upgraded a cart from 1.2.7 to 1.3.7 using a testbed to setup the 1.3.7 cart. I exported the live 1.2.7 db and imported it into the 1.3.7 test db so I had data and images to test with. I don't see any reason to import your data and then run zc_install again. The import from phpMyAdmin should populate the db correctly. If you run zc_install and don't select "upgrade DB only" (or whatever it says) you're erasing the contents of the db. The db upgrade should detect the version of the db and preselect the required upgrade. From what you've said, you already installed 1.3.7, so the db upgrade shouldn't do anything.

I installed 1.3.7 into its own directory and with its own new db...I then imported the old db into the new db...after importing my old data, at the top of the admin page for the 1.3.7 I saw the message that the db needed to be upgraded to a higher level, so I ran the db upgrade portion of zc_install to upgrade only the db...at this point I would expect my data to be available, but it's not...and none of it's available...not products, not customers, not manufacturers, not sales reports/history...

Check your files for:
/includes/configure.php
/admin/includes/configure.php

Did you remember to update the database name, username and password?

Did you update all paths to the new temp directory?

Yes, both configure files are correct as well as all paths.

I'm assuming you've got this installed in a test directory. Can you post a url (or send it to me via PM)? Maybe I can see something we're missing.