by Howard Miller.
I would normally say - and I think I have - that doing a fresh install is pointless because you're just going to overwrite it with your backed-up data. And that's true. However, given all the trouble you have been having, I would just go and try it. If it works, it's a win for you and you've also proved that Moodle actually runs on your system.
I'm feeling a bit guilty about the ssh thing. Although I still recommend getting to grips with the command line do remember that you can get just the same results with cPanel. If you feel more comfortable with cPanel then use that. Once you get your head around the command line you won't go back but I'm worried that I've just thrown another variable at you to confuse things.