Abstract: Database tables are unloaded by launching a number of threads corresponding to a number of export directories located on separate storage devices that maintain the database tables. Each thread is assigned a database table to unload, and data unloaded from each database table is stored in a corresponding export directory. The data is unloaded from each database table by reading data storage blocks from each table and storing the data logs in the export directory. Each thread is handled by a separate process in a Symmetrical Multi-Processing (SMP) environment. The process is repeated until each database table has been unloaded. The data is then loaded into database tables by first creating a number of temporary tables corresponding to the number of threads, reading a set of data stored in the export directory and storing the data read in a corresponding of the temporary tables by launching a load process for each temporary table.