Upgrading Drupal

When I try to add content it says I have no content types and I need to add a content type. When I go to structure it lists all the content types like article, book page, etc. What should I do?

I want to move an existing installation of Drupal from one site to another. I do not have access to the hosting control panel that has this Drupal installation, because it is being blocked from a previous webmaster with whom my client is having issues with (It was paid for but he is still blocking).

I have been searching through these forums and google and have been unable to find a clear solution to this issue.

I am currently running Drupal 7.7 and am unable to get a list of available updates.

When I go to /admin/reports/updates it will list a number of my modules each with the message "Failed to get available update data" this occurs for ALL modules.

I have checked and my server is able to connect to updates.drupal.org (when I connect I get a messaging confirming that my IP is not blocked).

I have attempted to update using Drush but it too has failed. Below is a copy of the output from Drush when I run pm-update:

Checking available update data ... [ok]
Failed to check available update data for Block. [ok]
Failed to check available update data for Entity API. [ok]
Failed to check available update data for Rules. [ok]

I am working on a drupal project which has 3 copies in 3 different servers.

1. Development server
2. QA server
3. Production server

all 3 copies are having 3 different database with different data. We work on development copy and that is verified in QA server and updated to Production server.

I can upgrade code base but my problem is how can I handle database deployment process? I can not replace QA/Production database with development database because all of these having different datas and data would be replaced.

Upgrading Drupal is a pain, but I think I have it down.

One issue I am still having is the way my administrative menus look after upgrading Drupal 6 to Drupal 7. It basically looks and feels like Drupal 6 still. I have included 2 screen shots. One is of what my admin menu looked like after the upgrade, and the other is what it SHOULD look like.... guess I cant upload images any longer.. hmm, ok. I have posted the images here: http://www.bothellblog.net/content/drupal-images

I currently have version 7.9 installed on a website that someone wants me to update with a Minor version 7.14. I did not design the website nor have I ever installed or updated Drupal so I am ignorant when it comes to this software. I do have experience designing, installing, and updating other open source software but once again that is not Drupal.

Reading the upgrade instructions I see this text:

Remove all old core files and directories, except for the 'sites' directory
and any custom files you added elsewhere.

With many open source software that I have installed you would overwrite old files in most cases, and then run an update file. Am I reading this right? 1. Do I need to delete all current files in the FTP manager that control Drupal and then update the new files and proceed with installation? My concern here is I delete the template or add on files that were designed for the current installation. I suppose first I need I need to see if the 'sites' files are clearly identified. The delete instead of overwrite is what concerns me here. In the overwrite scenario files that do not need updated are left alone. Here delete it gone!