[FleaBag]

Aftermath: Thanks for the link to the thread, I took a look but it doesn't seem to offer me any new options... As nitro mentioned I don't have SSH; although I do have phpmyadmin installed but that times out also, just like the default backup feature in vB.

Nitro: I hadn't considered using a CGI script, I'm pretty certain it's set up on the server - if it isn't I'll deal with that when I get there lol.

Dan: As mentioned all profile pics, avatars and attachments are already in the file system, but thanks for lending some support anyway.

As an update, I seem to have managed to use vB's backup feature to create 4 different SQL files - I haven't done this kind of thing in years - but from what I can see I should be able to use those files seperately to restore the database. The only issue though is that even when exporting the postindex table on it's own, it still times out.

Thanks for the support people, I didn't expect such a helpful response.