Changing to new server

[TimberFloorAu]

Hi guys,

Been a tad quiet of late, apologies. Its all Gerry ( UkBusinessLives ) fault, since his post regarding a plotter, we have subsequently setup an entire print shop lol.

Anyhoo..

our server is based in USA. We have decided to shift the forum, onto one of our Aussie servers, and really and truthfully, would like a Nuts n Bolts breakdown, of the best way to transfer a forum, to new server.

The latest DB is a little over 500mb, this is the bit thats scaring me the most. I realise we can view the transferred site, prior to switching Nameservers, to allow us to test functionality etc...

But is there a PROPER method.

I really dont want to assign this task to our US server guys, and really dont want our Aussie server guys to get involved, so will be doing a DIY job.

In essence, this is what I was gonna do in this order.

1. make a backup of DB, and download it locally, using FTP
2. download all forum stuff from our US server, locally using FTP
3. then upload it all....
4. create new identical database, and this is the bit that worries me, is uploading 500mb of database, without timeouts... etc

Is there a more efficient means?
Should I be doing this differently....

I realise we need at some point to shut the forum down, for an extended time..

Regards Ste