Best way to back up mysql database

[John Almberg]

First, I wanted to say how great this list is. I'm a newbie FreeBSD  
admin and, besides the Handbook and "Absolute FreeBSD" (which never  
seems to leave my desk), this list is the best resource I have.

I just had a huge scare today... One of the websites on my server  
uses a large Mysql database. Somehow, one of the tables got corrupted  
today.

I have been blithely backing up mysql with a simple cron script that  
ran mysqldump every night. Simple, reliable, and I've never needed it.

Today, when I realized the database was corrupted, I scrambled for my  
backup, and realized that if I hadn't caught the problem today,  
tomorrow my backup would have been overwritten, and I would have  
been... well, not a happy camper.

Again, I have run into a problem which is stupidly obvious to  
experienced admins, I'm sure. I want to slap myself, but don't have  
time. I'll do that after I have a better backup system in place.

I am just about to dive into Google in search of a solution, but  
thought I would fire off a quick request, in case there is an obvious  
solution that everyone uses. If there is, a name or URL will do. I'll  
figure out the rest.

Any hints much appreciated. Not going home until this is fixed...

-- John