You can tell me more about the 301 redirect please?
you mean some thing like this :
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* http://www.site.com/new_directory/$1 [R=301,QSA,L]
thanks

add a .htaccess to your root directory or add a line similiar to this to your existing .htaccess. It must be in your http directory or root directory, not your smf directory.
Redirect 301 /smf http://yourdomain.com/newdirectory/index.php
This will redirect everything in the directory smf to the new forum index page in the new directory. use repair_setting.php (which you can get at smf to change the name of the directory your forum is in)