1.4.9 -> 1.5.3 Tons of Mods, need advice

I want to get my store upgraded to 1.5. It has a bunch of mods that I have purchased. I realize that they probably won't work after the upgrade so I thought It would be best to install a separate clean version of 1.5 out there and just point a subdomain to it and repoint my main domain to it when I have it up and looking good.

Done that and now both are accessible- Now I'm realizing the task involved with manually inserting my 250 products, customers, etc. Arhgg!

Q1. Is there a mod that will export my 1.4.9 products, customers, sales, etc to 1.5.3 format and import them? I played with a couple of the free import/export mods and even after changing the excel files to match, kept getting errors on trying to import stuff to 1.5.

Q2. Or would it be best to copy my 1.4.9 site and run the upgrade script? I wanted to do this first but didn't know exactly how to clone the database in SQL. I'm afraid to run the script against my actual store because if something goes wrong, I will have it dead in the water or am I worried for nothing?

Any suggestions really appreciated! Thanks all!

1.4.9 live store: http://www.desertdogdecals.com
1.5.3 test store: sandbox.desertdogdecals.com
-Jeff

5 FREE decals of your choice from my store for whomever helps me with a solution! Thanks!

Bump.. Anyone?