What you should have done was install WordPress in the root domain, export the WordPress data (using a plugin like WordPress Importer), and then upload the images (in the UPLOADS directory) to the new WordPress, then run the import.
What you also could have done was export the SQL data (via myPHPadmin or whatever SQL dashboard you use) and then import it to a new table for the root domain. But you might still have pathing issues (which is why I use the plugin to export/export WordPress sites).
Now you have gummed up the works. If you have a backup of your SQL database you should restore that and start over.