I don't know if this is similar to the reported problems with GoDaddy or not.  I'm planning an upgrade from DNN 4.3.5 on a web site which is hosted (shared environment) by Server Intellect.  The upgrade process requires to unzip the upgrade package into the server root directory, update the web.config, and run the wizard.  I'm waiting for a response from SI, but I'm not at all sure that I can execute the unzip command through their control panel, and I don't have a shell account on the server, they don't provide shell access.  (Largely because they run Windows!)  Their tech support team explicitly says they don't support DNN upgrades, only fresh installs.  Is Server Intellect, like GoDaddy, a known problem for DNN hosting?

Is it possible to upgrade a site if you can't execute the unzip command?  If so how would you do it?   Based on Mitchel Sellers' post http://www.mitchelsellers.com/blogs/articletype/articleview/articleid/278/upgrade-to-dotnetnuke-500-from-462-or-later.aspx, I'll probably have to do this twice, since my existing version predates the upgrade improvements in 4.6.x.

If it isn't possible to upgrade, how hard would it be to build a totally new site and transfer the existing data and configuration?  I get the impression that the site data is all in the database and none in the disk files (unlike some other CMS I've worked with).  Would restoring the new database from a backup of the old one do it??  Any advice gratefully accepted.