This is a quick "how to" on updating a Drupal website however... before continuing I would like to say a few things.

I've been thoroughly converted to Drupal this year. I love how it's put together and how there is basically a module for EVERYTHING I've ever wanted to use.

Since "being converted" I've taken on a few jobs designing sites in Drupal and more recently doing Web Admin stuff for an online church community (Junction J).

When I started working I quickly realized that the core Drupal files hadn't been updated in a LONG time. I decided that this should be my first task, updating modules and the Drupal core.

I did some research on Google, because I didn't want to mess the whole thing up! I didn't find an overwhelming amount of useful information on how to update the system modules without ruining the whole site so I thought I would take a few mins and post on what I've been doing to keep everything up to date.

- Firstly, download the new system files from the Drupal website.

- Backup Files and SQL database (just in case!)

- Rename or remove the sites/default/settings.php, .htacess and robots.txt out of the new system files. We dont want to end up replacing them on the server :-s

- Upload the rest of the files to the site (usually you're ftp client will ask you if its ok to overwrite all the files... click ok).

- Login as the original admin user and browse to YOURDOMAINNAME.com/update.php.

- Run the update script.

It's always worth checking the logs afterwards just to make sure there aren't any problems. There shouldn't be unless your site has heavily modified the system files before.