I had a HDD failure so ordered a new one and waiting for it to come in. My mySQL databases were on there (data files) so I'm just wondering how to go about rebuilding them once I install the new drive. I have a .sql backup dump of the entire DBs, but not sure how it will work to recreate the data files, since those also contain the root password and such. I probably should have backed up those as well right?

Do you mean with .sql files the output of the mysqldump command?

If so, did you dump all databases at once or not? If not, you'd have to create the databases manually (just "create database", no tables). Run the mysql command and the database will be filled with the tables.

If you created the backup with --all-databases, you'd probable just have to run the mysql command once and the databases are created.

The users and grants is more difficult: those are kept in the mysql database. If you didn't backup that one either individually or with all-databases you have to create all accounts again.

(I realize now that this is my situation as well... hmm I should do something about that)

Be careful with the mysql version you use. 4.n and 5.0 are *not* compatible on the mysqldump level. You have to convert the databases first. It does not work to read 4.n dumps into 5.0. You should install the same version first and then upgrade.

jlinkels

I just figured it out, I was making it more complicated then needed. When you fire up mysql, it actually generates the basic schema if it does not exist. So I should be good now, DBs are restoring.