Hi,
I've never been able to find a way to copy a DB whilst it is running, but I have created a process whereby I have a daily backup of my DB.
Firstly I created a 2nd copy of my main DB and called it MainDBBU that's not it's real name, but you get the idea].
Then within the main DB I created a process writing VB to append critical tables to my MainDBBU, which overwrites the exact same tables in the MainDBBU. There's no need to append queries, forms, reports, macros or modules, because they don't change [unless you're gonna create queries, forms etc on the fly regularly, which then presents you with a different beast to deal with.
I find this works fine, I have to date had to use my backup DB once to replace my MainDB and it only took a matter of minutes.
I have a process that runs every hour during the working day, so any loss of data is kept to a minimum and to the last hour. At the end of the day the database is closed down whereby an end of day backup is actioned.
Our IT department runs a process everynight backing up our network, so a copy of both the main and backup DB is held by them. A just for extra paranoia, I have a copy of both on my PC's hard drive, which I backup once a day, so if the networks backup copy gets lost or damaged or the tapes are not available for whatever reason, I can still replace both from my PC's hard drive.
This may seem overkill, but it has served me well and saved me many a days headace and work.
Hope this is of assistance.
John