well... long story short I wasnt paying attention to what I was doing while trying to add a user to my database
instead of clicking
"Add New User"
I ckicked
"Delete Database"
my finger clicked "yes im sure" about 1/3 of a second before I realized what the hell I was doing.
im going to download a new copy of ubbt6.1b1 from infopop and install it into a different folder w/ new db and then go cry myself to sleep