Mysql – How to restore thesql DB from only thei files

If you only see the .frm files, then there is a strong likelihood that the storage engine in use was InnoDB and innodb_file_per_table must have been off by default.

If you transferred everything from datadir on the crashed server onto another disk on another machine, you may be able to startup mysql with that folder as is.

For example, suppose ServerA is your crashed server and ServerB is where you want it placed.

• Install MySQL 5.5.8 on ServerB
• net stop mysql on ServerB to make sure mysql is down on ServerB
• md C:\MySQLData on ServerB
• Drop everything from the data folder on ServerA into C:\MySQLData on ServerB
• Make C:\MySQLData the new datadir

Add this to my.ini on ServerB

[mysql]
datadir=C:/MySQLData

• C:\> del C:\MySQLData\ib_logfile* on ServerB
• net start mysql on ServerB

Please try this and tell us what happened

UPDATE 2012-02-03 17:06 EDT

Since you were able to recover everything NOW DO THIS:

mysqldump -u... -p... -A -d --routines --triggers > C:\MySQLSchema.sql

This will give all table structures in the MySQL Instance.

In order to restore the MyISAM called table_name into database_name you must do the following

STEP 01) Run this query : show variables like 'datadir';

This will tell you what the base directory is for data. For this example, let's use the default (/var/lib/mysql)

STEP 02) Copy table_name.frm to /var/lib/mysql/database

STEP 03) Copy table_name.MYD to /var/lib/mysql/database

STEP 04) Copy table_name.MYI to /var/lib/mysql/database

STEP 05) chown mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/database/table_name.*

That's it. A mysql restart is not needed because the information_schema database is very sensitive and detects folder changes very quickly.

To make sure the restored table is known to mysql, do the following:

STEP 06) Run this query

SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema = 'database_name'
AND table_name = 'table_name'\G

You should see information about the table size and change dates

STEP 07) Run these commands

use database_name
show tables;

You should see the restored table in the listing