Mysql – If I have the MySQL .frm, .MYD, and .MYI files, can I recreate the db without SQL

To find the 'data directory', which ended up under ApplicationData\AllUsers, I looked in 'my.ini' under the MySQL directory in Program Files. Then it was as simple (on the face of it) to copy all the .myi, .myd, and .frm files to a new directory under the data directory. Voila, instant DB.

I've never actually done this but your question relates to the tools I use so I was curious! It looks like this is actually possible, here is an example:

http://www.chriscalender.com/?p=28

Sometime you may need to recover a table when all you have is the .ibd file. In this case, if you try to load it into a new instance, your likely to encounter some errors about the table id not matching. And there is not really a way around this.

However, I’ve found two work-arounds for this:

Note: You will need the .ibd file and the CREATE TABLE statement for each table you want to recover using these methods.

• Simulate the internal InnoDB table counter. That is, create work tables (with innodb_file_per_table enabled) until you have the internal pointer of table id equal to (1 – id_of_ibd_table_you_need_to_restore). (See Method #1)
• Manually hex edit the .ibd file, changing the table id. (See Method #2)

The steps themselves are several pages long so I haven't pasted them here.

Another related post: http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2011/05/13/connecting-orphaned-ibd-files/

I'll be curious to hear if that works, it looks like multiple people have used it successfully.