Characters won't appear in OLD WoltLK version.HELP!

I think I might need help from staff for this matter, but I will post it here hoping someone will have an answer.
I downloaded WotLK, but not from the warmane.com website. I noticed that I get really bad FPS while playing the game so I'm forced to play on super low graphics. I downloaded the OLD version from warmane.com and the FPS was great, however, when I logged in with my credentials no characters appeared. In fact, I downloaded both versions from the warmane site and my character wont appear at all, the account is empty of characters.
I thought it was an issue between OLD and NEW version of WotLK, but it seems that the issue comes from downloading WotLK from a different site.
Anyone had similar experiences? Any tips? I really dont want to lose my character and start all over, for real.
Thanks!!