Existing site drops me back into the install routine Existing site drops me back into the install routine and when I succumb and try to go through the install, it tells me:


I need to create a sites/default/settings file when it already exists; even when I delete that and create a new one, I get the same error message
Similarly, it says I need to create a sites/default/files directory, even when it already exists; when I try to delete the old one and start over I get a bunch of denials and when I try to change the properties, I get a bunch of messages telling me I can't do that. 


Do I have to scrap the whole site and start over? Hopefully I can keep the Drupal DB which has some newly-created content pages.

And while we are at it, when I set the properties for a file or folder, is Drupal considered the Owner, Group, or Other?
This seems like a permissions problem. If you are in Linux, use the "chmod" command to set the correct permissions for settings.phpYou may need to have superuser privileges to do this so see your site admin.

Often, the web-server runs as user "www-data" with group "www-data" so you may need to use the "chown" command (once again with superuser privileges) to change its ownership first.

Example: 

# sudo chown www-data:www-data settings.php

# sudo chmod 444 settings.php


You will have to adjust the permissions again before editing this file in the future.