Most web hosts will give you access to manage your database through a script named phpmyadmin. In this tutorial I will go through the steps to make a backup of your database.

View a QuickTime Movie of this tutorial.

Step 1.

Login into phpmyadmin and you should see a page similar to this screen shot:

Step 2.

In the left frame find the database you are wanting to back up:

Step 3.

Now click the “Export” tab:

Step 4.

Go to the bottom and check the “Save as File” check box. Finally click the submit button. This will create a database backup and allow you to save it to your computer.

From this same section you can also choose the type of file you want to save. SQL, zipped, gzip, or bzipped.

Wrap Up

Hopefully this small tutorial will help you backup your database using phpmyadmin and prevent any loss of data. You can also use these sames steps to move your site to a different server.