How to generate efficient backups?

[Ronan Lucio]

Hi,

Yesterday I had a problem in a InnoDB table that I needed
to DROP and reimport the table.

When I tryed to reimport the table, most of the data was lost.
So, I´ve tryed to reimport the data from the backups (created via
mysqldump) and these datas were still corrupted.

So, it brings to my mind some doubts:

1) Is it common?
    Is difficult to have to trust in database that can´t gives you
    a real security about the data ingrity.

2) Is there a way to look for the corrupted tables in the whole
    database, automaticaly?
    I´d like to create some monitor where it would send me an
    alert when a table is corrupted

3) Is there a way to check the backup to be sure it´s OK?
    I can´t depends on a backup that I´m not sure it´s OK.

I´m running MySQL-4.1.7

I´ve had some problems with big MyISAM tables, but in these
cases REPAIR and OPTIMIZE table have solved.

Yesterday the problem happened in a InnoDB table.

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks,
Ronan