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.

MyISAM

For a MyISAM table mydb.mytable, you should have three files

• \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb\mytable.frm
• \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb\mytable.MYD
• \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb\mytable.MYI

They should already be accessible as a table since each file contains needed data, metadata, and index info. Collectively, they form the table. There are no external storage engine mecahnisms to access.

InnoDB

Take a look at this Pictorial Representation of InnoDB

The only thing that attaches ibdata1 to the .ibd files is the data dictionary.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to create each table and swap in the .ibd

Before you do anything, make a full copy of "\bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data" to another

Here is a sample

Suppose you have a database mydb with the table mytable. This means

• You have the folder \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb
• Inside that folder, you have
  • mytable.frm
  • mytable.ibd

You need the .frm. If you look at my post How can extract the table schema from just the .frm file?, you can download a MySQL utility that can generate the SQL needed to create the table.

You should now do the following

• Move mytable.ibd to \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data
• Run the SQL to create the InnoDB table
• Login to mysql and run ALTER TABLE mydb.mytable DISCARD TABLESPACE; (This will delete \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb\mytable.ibd)
• Copy \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mytable.ibd into \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb
• Login to mysql and run ALTER TABLE mydb.mytable IMPORT TABLESPACE; (This will register \bin\mysql\mysql5.6.12\data\mydb\mytable.ibd into the data dictionary)

After this, the table mydb.mytable should be fully accessible. You can test that accessibility by simply running:

SELECT * FROM mydb.mytable LIMIT 10;

Give it a Try !!!

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