Backup question - data location

[Aeroprism]

Hello all!

After half a year of usage, I'm backing my forum up (seems like a logical thing to do) and I'm looking at what I acquired from my server.  It's all a lot of very small php files, I don't seem to find the source files where all the posts from my forum are kept.  Where would I find this?  I want to make sure that the hard work of my forum members (roleplay community) is properly saved.

Also, my "backup" method is merely to download of all the directories that were installed when I first set the board, in their current state of course.  Is that a good backup method?  Are there any better, less crude ways to do a forum backup?

Thank you very much!

[Illori]

you also need a backup of your database, this is where all your data is stored, without this you have almost nothing.

[Aeroprism]

That's what I figured.  The problem is, I have no idea where it is or how to backup it.

[Illori]

if you have a cpanel from your host there is an option to backup then you can backup your database from there

[Aeroprism]

Ah yes, I found a smf1 database which I backed up.  It's only 5Megs but we're only about 12 active users so I imagine this is normal.

The content is a SQL database.  What could I use to parse it?

Thanks for all the help so far, you're been very kind!

[Illori]

if you just want to read it you can extract a .sql file from that archive and read it with a text editor.

[Aeroprism]

Apparently so. 

My archive has only one sql file and to be honest, after spending 5-6 mins looking at it through an editor, I have no idea what to make of it!

I wonder what it looks like in database format.