How long genrally would this take

I run a guitar forum with my friends, and i was wondoring, i have an insanely large forum [stats shown at end]. Anyone know how long this would generally take to basically, get backups, switch servers, and restore the backup, and etc etc. Our current stats are:

Threads: 251,318, Posts: 3,916,138, Members: 601,884
Welcome to our newest member, WiganMack_15

We have hundreds of members register in 6-9 hours. And around 1.5 - 2.5 thousand posts a day. Soon we'll have 4 million, we're going to have a party at 5 million, but thats not related to the topic. Forget i said that.

PS - We also have around 1350 - 1600 people online at a time, around 400-500 members. Do you guys think closing the forum for a day or two would affect that?

[raiderlax]

Hey cool I don't think it would really have a huge effect.

Whats the url of your site, I wouldn't mind checking it out.

[Lynne]

I hired someone to move my forum. He made it totally seamless, people had no clue we moved servers (even though I made sure to post again and again about when it was happening). If you do it right, they won't notice (although there is nothing wrong with shutting down a forum for a move). Stats for our forum then: 35,000 threads, 500,000 posts, 70,000 users. (Much smaller than yours, but still, get someone who knows what they are doing and it will go fine.)

[HMBeaty]

Probably a couple hours. At least the way I do it, it shouldn't take more than that.

[Frozen Tears]

Originally Posted by raiderlax

Hey cool I don't think it would really have a huge effect.

Whats the url of your site, I wouldn't mind checking it out.

www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum

PS - Thanks for help guys =]

[G0F0RBR0KE]

Before switching, you should do the following task.

• Inform users that they'll need to put their valid e-mail to get notification when the site/forum is up and running again.
• Tell them that it will take about 2 or 3 days or less to get it up and running

Doesn't take that long to get back up and running...The uploading the backup might take time depending on your connection.

[Frozen Tears]

I have a 56k connection right now. I wont get back my DSL until like another month. So i'll have to wait until then.

[G0F0RBR0KE]

Wow, I perfer you wait till you get ur DSL or a better connection..

That 2 days will become 2 years if you're using Dial Up.

[Frozen Tears]

True that. I guess ill just have to upgrade for now. Or would you not reccomend that?

[no mods]

I made a complete back up once on 56k, I had 70 members and about 5000 posts. Took me 11 hours. So who knows how long it would take for you possibly days. I would wait or get somelse to help you.