The Database is the heart of your WordPress installation. Simply backing up and restoring all your files via FTP is not enough – it only contains the actual WordPress “programme” if you will, your plugins and themes, and all your uploaded media files (like pictures). It does NOT however contain your posts, links and some of the configuration data. That’s where the MySQL Database comes into play.
Backing up your database is as important as backing up all other data on your server, and I’m afraid to say that if your server develops a fault, you’ve got nobody else but yourself to blame.
Having said that, here’s a plugin that will do all the hard work for your, if you (want to) know about databases or not:
Un-zip the contents, copy it into your /wp-plugins/directory, activate the plugin and off you go. You can even schedule your backups on a daily basis and have them emailed to you for safe keeping.
Once you’ve done this, do somethign nice for yourself. Once you’ve done that, please familiarise yourself with how to RESTORE your database:
Let me leave you with this thought:
Backup often – you won’t regret it!