This should help you, if you have backup
Restoring from backup tutorial on codex
Thread Starter
rdader
(@rdader)
Cinghaman — thanks for your input, but I’m looking to wipe the slate clean not just for the database, but all the files, etc. I have a bad feeling that if I just start resetting piecemeal, I’ll wind up worse off than when I started. Again, thanks for trying to help.
Install a total fresh WordPress?
You can delete a whole database by going into PHPmyadmin, choosing Databases from the top menu, then check the database where you have WordPress installed, and select Drop.
Thread Starter
rdader
(@rdader)
I appreciate your input, Senff, but that complete F!@#ed up the web site. Thanks.
Not sure what you expected. You want to “wipe it all out and start new“, so I gave you instructions on how to delete your whole database. How it can F up your site, I don’t know because you should get a message that there is an error connecting to the database (obviously because it doesn’t exist anymore).
Other than just going to my server via FTP and deleting the entire Directory in which WP resides, and hopefully being able to reinstall it, is there a way to to set it back to factory original?
That, coupled with Senff’s advice, is exactly how you would do it. Then upload a new, fresh WP package, create a new, empty database, and do the install again.
Keep in mind that the database is where all your pages and posts are stored in and retrieved from, along with all the settings, etc. If you want to keep the themes, plugins and media that were on the site, then before you delete everything, download the complete wp-content folder first, as this is where all of those reside. Once you upload the new WP package, replace the wp-content folder with the one you downloaded.
