A simple and Fast way to both Install and Upgrade Drupal
This is the method I use for installing and upgrading Drupal.
I have used this method to install and upgrade over 20 Drupal websites.
(1) For a Quick and simple installation of Drupal, use the Fantastico Drupal Installation utility provided by your web hosting company.
(2) After installing Drupal via Fantastico, using an FTP program, create a subdirectory folder called rootfiles within the Drupal root directory.
(3) Move the following Fantastico and Drupal files from the Drupal root directory into the rootfiles.
CHANGELOG.txt
COPYRIGHT.txt
fantversion.php
INSTALL.mysql.txt
INSTALL.pgsql.txt
install.php
INSTALL.txt
LICENSE.txt
MAINTAINERS.txt
UPGRADE.txt
The Drupal root directory should now only contain the following files plus of course the Drupal installation folders:
.htaccess
cron.php
favicon.ico
index.php
robots.txt
update.php
xmlrpc.php
(4) As a Backup, download your entire website to your local computer via FTP. This would include all the files and folders within the root directory.
(5) Download a copy of your Database to your local computer. You can use the Free MySQL Database Backup Utility I wrote. It is available here: MySQL Database Backup Utility.
Upgrading