Restoring MySQL database from physical files

Question

Is it possible to restore a MySQL database from the physical database files. I have a directory that has the following file types:

client.frm
client.MYD
client.MYI

but for about 20 more tables.

I usually use mysqldump or a similar tool to get everything in 1 SQL file so what is the way to deal with these types of files?

Answer 1

Yes it is! Just add them to your database-folder ( depending on the OS ) and run a command such as "MySQL Fix Permissions". This re-stored the database. See too it that the correct permissions are set on the files aswell.

Answer 2

I once copied these files to the database storage folder for a mysql database which was working, started the db and waited for it to "repair" the files, then extracted them with mysqldump.

Answer 3

MySQL tables are really three files together:

• The FRM file is the table definition.
• The MYD file is the where the actual data is stored.
• The MYI file is the where the index created on the table are stored.

You should be able to restore by copying them in your database folder.

Answer 4

sweet. totally worked here. my Win32 server...got manually deprecated. and i was able to recover my MyISAM tables this way to Ubuntu-64 :) very happy making for me as i really didn't want to have to fix my boot record to get back into windows.

though i am getting the error about "Checking for corrupt, not cleanly closed and upgrade needing tables." that wasn't there before. maybe i'll do a proper SQL dump, DROP, and recover then.

cheers very much.