Need help restoring database that I messed up

[Hightower]

I wanted to add another gallery to my website, but my webhost was temporarily unable to perform the install.
So I thought I'd be smart and copy a current intallation of a gallery, then rename it, login as admin and delete all the users and files, and start it up from scratch.
Turns out I was sadly mistaken!!

Now when I visit the original gallery that I copied from, all the users and albums are gone!   

So I wipe out the new install (the copy with the changed name), and copy over the original install with the back-up I had made prior to this experimentation.  But the albums and users are still gone, and the gallery description across the top of the main page is still the new named version!  Now when I go to the \albums directory, all the files are still there under \userpics.   They just dont show up in the gallery - all the albums are gone.  So apparently the albums structure and users and all that stuff is NOT stored in the directories that I backed up - which was the entire directory under the gallery's path name.   So where is this information at?  i searched the entire directory structure and cannot find anything that makes any sense to me.

How can I repair what I have done?  like I said, I have all the files - the complete directory under the gallery name is intact with \albums and \userpics and all files still there where they belong.  just no users or albums and history of any kind because I apparently wiped them out by deleting all users and albums (in the new copied install) in admin mode.   I have tried using the admin tools features to no avail.   So is there any way to fix it, or is it just screwed?  ANy help is greatly appreciated, thankyou very much in advance for any help.

Also, I must make you aware that I am a semi newbie - I can navigate admin and config very well and use all the features of the program fluently, I am just not very educated in website administrating and MySQL, php, and terms like that are like greek to me.

[Joachim Müller]

all the stuff that you're missing used to be stored in the database, not in a file on your webspace. If you haven't backed it up before running havoc (apparently you haven't), then you're stuck and everything is gone, sorry.

[Hightower]

That's what I was afraid of, thankyou very much for confirming this, I will start over, live and learn, sometimes the hard way!  At least it was a fairly new gallery without too much in it yet...it can be rebuilt.

I have just educated myself over night on website structure and database and mysql terminology, I think I'm getting it now...

Thankyou very much again, my lesson is learned and I shall not make the same mistake twice!