Backing up database gave me serious problems

Hello,
I have had a serious problem today, I started backing up the MySQL database within the admin section of zen-cart using the database backup contribution. It seemed to stall part way through, and then my URL was no longer visible, instead i got an error complaining that there was something wrong with the zen-cart cache ... no pages showing, just the database error. My hosts rebooted the server to try and fix the database error and it appeared to work, ie I could see the site once again.

However, i have just tested a few things out and i have found that when someone trys to sign up, and the email is sent to them, the get greeted with this

1016 Can't open file: 'zen_email_archive.MYI' (errno: 144)
in:
[insert into zen_email_archive (email ........ blah blah blah ......

there is loads of stuff here, but its all text ... I hope someone can help.

Thank your for any efforts.

I have discovered that error 144 = Table is crashed and last repair failed. I also think I was running low on space, but I still need a fix for the database, anyone know how ?

I have fixed it, I went into mySQL admin, had a look at the tables and noticed the zen_email_archive was 'in use', so I selected the table with a check mark, and chose fix table from the bottom of the page, and it told me that it fixed it, i tried the email option within the site and it seems good. I think the problem all stemmed from the fact I had nearly run out of space on the server ... but I am not totally sure.

Disk space problems will certainly cause that sort of situation.

Indeed DrByte, i failed to metion above, that before I fixed the table with PHPmyAdmin I increased the space available to this domain. It had only 6MB of space left! For completeness, the backup file (which I just made) came to 17.5MB hence when I tried initially today the backup file couldn't fit in the space available, so crashed and left the database corrupt. What a day!