Hi guys,

Ok so ive realised that the original OS had 2012 sql express and VS 2012 installed  - so ive gone and installed these (plus uninstall sql express 2008) so as to keep things the same. I also realised that the error i was getting wrt the requestValidationMode was due to the application pool selected - so i changed the app pool in IIS to default (which is .net 4.0 and integrated pass pool). I replaced the web.config back to the recovered version (ie original)

However I am no nearer - ie I still get install screen - although i do not have the error due to requestValidationMode 

Richard, thanks a lot for having a look at this. I attempted to change the it to include the details from my udl file (Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=DotNetNuke;Data Source=MMRRCSERVER\SQLEXPRESS) but quite possibly made a mess of it? Can you suggest how my web.config file should look. In SQLSERVER I connect to the server MMRRCSERVER\SQLSERVER and within here I have a database called DotNetNuke which points to a file called Database.mdf. The physical location of the file is at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA.

Any other suggestions that i should try?

Again thanks for all the help so far,

Ger.

Hi Richard,

I tried changing it because it was'nt working as was. However, I now have it solved! 

Decided to run through the install (ie did a couple of nexts) and it noted that login was the issue. So I went through security settings on the db and got it right. So reloaded the website files and went to address and this time it picked up the db correctly (ie install did not appear - went straight to website). I guess by installing the correct version of SQL it solved it. However the website was not correct ---- the layout was right however the text/content was corrupted ie text were all symbols etc. Had no idea why this was occurring - if all settings were correct and it was reading from db.

So next I decided to give incorrect db string in web.config, wait for install page and I ran through the install. This time when web loaded the content was all good - website fully restored bar 1 news section which I'm currently redoing.

again thanks for all your suggestions and help,

Ger.