If you checkpoint, and you backup all the database files (including transaction log files) in the correct order, you should not need to db_recover (as database recovery can occur at a later time, if it could not, then your backup is totally broken anyway).
db_recover does much more than db_checkpoint. If you want to trust db_checkpoint, fine. I don't. In any case, all of this will soon be moot with back-mdb, thank god.
--Quanah -- Quanah Gibson-Mount Sr. Member of Technical Staff Zimbra, Inc A Division of VMware, Inc. -------------------- Zimbra :: the leader in open source messaging and collaboration