Local mirror of existing live forum.

[carpefile]

I'm sure this is covered somewhere within the 120 pages of this subforum, but I only have a week to do this. :nervous:
I have after much trial and error figured out how to install a new forum locally to work on, but what I really need to do is mirror my existing forum so I can do all my upgrades/hacks locally before taking it live.
I hope to minimize downtime of my site and make the transition as seamless as possible this way.

I have copied my entire forum directory and also downloaded a backup of the db.
I simply do not know how to import the old db into a new one. I am slogging away, trying to use impex to accomplish this, but after numerous failed attempts, thought it would be best to ask for knowledgable advice.