Import or restore MySQL databases from var directory

Question

I recently backed up my entire laptop hard drive with SuperDuper and reinstalled Snow Leopard. Because I made an image clone, I was able to restore all my files without losing any data. Go hard drive cloning.

However, the one thing I forgot to do was to do a dump of all my MySQL databases. Eek. Because of the nature of MySQL's storage, I can't just drag and drop the databases and tables—all the data is locked up in the server.

When I mount the cloned image I can navigate to /Volumes/laptop/usr/local/mysql/var (since I had installed MySQL to /usr/local/mysql) and I can see all my databases listed as directories with random files inside, which seems promising.

What should I do to restore all those databases I forgot to dump? Is there a way to restore the var/ folder to my new, fresh installation of MySQL and (hopefully) maintain all the users and privileges? Can I just copy that directory and have everything work?

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I can't guarantee that this works for you too, it did for me.

I've done similar restorations (under Windows, though) by simply copying the files (the whole /usr/local/mysql directory...shouldn't that be under /var/mysql anyway?). Of course you'll need to stop the MySQL daemon and restart if after you're done.

Also, check the file permissions, just in case that something has changed.