With the plethora of available (and usually free) programs that can be used to back up your database why stick with the one built in .threads if it isn't working for you? Threads is a message board. It includes a backup tool as a convenience. If that doesn't function or proves to be less than convenient why not choose a better tool for the job? phpMyAdmin and phpMyBackup come to mind immediately as better tools for the job of backing up a database the size of yours.