Are you able to download the database directly from AdminCP?

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by Zachery

It was used pretty often by some customers, I remember getting complaints about it early on in vB4's life cycle. But honestly, people who used the tool rarely got full backups, which caused more problems.

We removed it for the sake of causing less problems in the long run, IIRC.

What I meant to say is it doesn't seem like it was ever used for hacking. I probably shouldn't have said "proficiently", rather, "often". Meaning that if it was used, you didn't really hear about it ever happening.

[PsychoModz]

I never use the built-in database dump functionality, as almost all dumps were corrupted. I always use an external utility to dump the data. Even phpMyAdmin is not recommended to backup and restore complete databases (at least if they are bigger than 2 MBytes).
If you have a root or dedicated server with access to the shell, then the fastest and safiest backup can be done with the mysqldump utility.
If you only can access FTP, then you should consider to install MySQLDumper (and secure it using a password), which can even backup and restore very big databases from the Browser.

[Digital Jedi]

I've always liked using PuTTy, once I stopped making typos and trying to access the wrong site. Ah, those early days.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

I've always liked using PuTTy, once I stopped making typos and trying to access the wrong site. Ah, those early days.

Ha. That still happens to me even in my OLD days!