4 ways to get copy of live db installed in test area:

PHPADMIN > export based on FAQ here.
my own command lines using mysql and mysqld.
DrByte's backup via zencart admin > edit .sql created to new test database name and then used admin to do restore
freeware that does a mysql backup and restore on large database.

In all 4 cases, when I tried to run the database upgrade only from zc_install, I received page cannot be displayed after it running for close to 10 secs and then when going to zencart admin in the 1.3.8 test area, it says the database versions is still not correct and needs to be upgraded.