Knowledgebase
How to upgrade Joomla from version 1.6.x to 1.7
There are a few ways you can use to upgrade Joomla from 1.6.x to 1.7
Before you start the upgrade, make a backup of the Joomla files on your account and of the database used by Joomla.
Joomla 1.6.0 and newer ones come with a built-in automatic upgrader. To access it, log in to your backend (admin panel), go to the Extension Manager (Extensions>Extension Manager), click on the Update tab. Then click on Purge Cache in the upper right corner and after that on Find Updates right next to it. Mark the checkbox for the update package and click on the Update button in the upper right corner. Try this way of updating to 1.7.0 only of you have version 1.6.5 (or 1.6.6).
You can also use the Extension Manager itself to install update packages. It's done in the same way as installing extensions. If you don't know how to install extensions refer to the tutorial on installing Joomla extensions. You can download upgrade packages from the download section of the official Joomla site. Keep in mind though that the only package there is for upgrading to version 1.7.0 is the one from 1.6.5 to 1.7.0. So if your version is older you'll have to upgrade to 1.6.6 (there are no packages to upgrade to version 1.6.5), and then use the package from version 1.6.5 to 1.7.0.
Since the automatic upgrader is still not very reliable we recommend the manual upgrade. If you have version 1.6.5 (or 1.6.6), first download the patch package from 1.6.5 to 1.7.0 from Joomla's site, then on your local computer unzip the package and upload the content with an FTP client to the root Joomla folder on your HostKnox account. If you have older versions than 1.6.5 (e.g 1.6.0, 1.6.2, etc.), first use the upgrade package 1.6.0 to 1.6.6, and then the one from 1.6.5 to 1.7.0.
You can also check out the tutorial on upgrading Joomla from 1.6.x to 1.7.0.