From what you are saying it looks like I am doing the right thing.

The only thing that concerns me is how long it seems to take.....5 mins or so...is this right?

When I uploaded the store I just zipped my files and transferred them over which was really quick.

doing it the other way around I am correct to just trf the whole store in one go to a file named back up. Or should I transfer folder by folder eg. admin, then includes, then images etc. etc. ? whichever way I try both seem to take an age.....which is why I am unsure.