Solved Reinstalling Joomla! files after being hacked

After you have recovered your database files, the attachments and avatars, you can install whichever version of Kunena you feel comfortable using. You can use the latest K 4.0 if you like, or you can use K 3.0.8 if you prefer. The answer (about using K 3.0. depends on what version of Kunena you were using before you got hacked.

It's possible to go back to K 3.0.8 (if you were using K 4.0.x before) but you have to make a small change to the _kunena_config table.

No,

1) Import database
2) copy the basic joomla files, to your ftp. and the configuration file.
3) login on the backend,Update joomla,
4) Install the lasted kunena version.
5) copy your attachments/avatars to the new site

Okay, this is where I am at right now. I have my website back in place with all new files and all my content still intact. So that part of the reinstallation went really well, must admit I was panicking a little bit. So all I need to do now is to the next important step and that is to install the community forum again.

So I will install the forum software again and hope that all the tables in the database marry up properly and I still have my 500,000 postings and 13,000 members.

One of the biggest headaches that I have found is that because I have so many members I'm finding that the avatar folder, plus some of the image folders are absolutely huge. It took a long time to download both images and avatars folders from the kunena section, God knows how long it will take to upload them again. I was wondering if there is any way I can zip these folders, upload them and then unzip them again, is this possible?

The reinstallation of the community forum software seem to go without incident. I've now got my forum back complete with all categories and posts, plus members. Looks like it's just the big task of uploading the avatars and images now.