it would be best to make a MySQL dump of all the contents. I'm not sure if copying the folders would be good enough.

you can make a MySQL dump using various administration programs/interfaces, including phpMyAdmin (which is what I would suggest). There's also a command that will do this for you, I believe, but it seems to escape me at this time. there was another thread about this a couple of months ago I believe, so if you search this forum for "sql dump" or just "dump," you might be able to find some references.