>Bruce, one other option if you are low on diskspace is using ssh to pipe the file to another server. >Check out http://christiank.org/wp/2010/12/pipe-a-gzipped-mysql-dump-over-ssh/ for an example of how you might do this So, first it gave the usual error that relates to not enough disk space. Then it made the connection to the other server, asking me to accept a certificate that isn't known... then asking for my password. Finally, it creates a file that is only 805B in size. So, I was doing the mysqldump on a Centos 5.x server and sending it to my own Linux Centos 6.x box that does have a url that allows ssh across the internet. I suppose it wouldn't create the connection or the dump.sql.gz file if it could not connect to my Centos 6.x box. I wish I understood the makeup of how mysql actually saves a database. I mean there is this mysql directory that has an directory for the same database that I am trying to get. However, if I just copy those files, I don't know if that will give me a database or not. Bruce