perhaps I could re-install WP under the /blog subdirectory, upload the files I have saved onto there, and then just try again to move them to the root?
not sure what a database is or where it is? I uninstalled WP using Cpanel, so i’m guessing it probably did delete whatever database you mean?
just to clarify, i did not formally backup my files. I copied them from my FTP, so I have all the wp-content, etc files in a folder on my computer. Not sure how to upload everything into my current WP install.