Where does MySQL store database files on Windows and what are the names of the files

Question

So I accidentally formatted my hard drive and re-installed Windows and forgot to backup an important database I had in my MySQL server  I m trying to salvage files now using some software  but I don t know what to look for   What is the path that the files are stored in  and what are the files named  what naming convention  or file extension should I look for    I believe my server was using MyISAM  but not 100  sure   Any advice would be appreciated

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1  Locate the my ini  which store in the MySQL installation folder   For example   C  Program Files MySQL MySQL Server 5 1 my ini   2  Open the    my ini    with our favor text editor    Path to installation directory  All paths are usually resolved relative to this  basedir  C  Program Files MySQL MySQL Server 5 1     Path to the database root   datadir  C  Documents and Settings All Users Application Data MySQL MySQL Server 5 1 Data   Find the    datadir     this is the where does MySQL stored the data in Windows

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For Windows 7   c  users all users MySql MySql Server x x Data   Where x x is the version number of the sql server installed in your machine   Fidel

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in MySQL are    myd  a database self and    tmd  a temporal file  But sometimes I see also   sql    It depends on your settings and or export method

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You can check my ini file to see where the data folder is located    Usually there is a folder  mysqlDirectory  data  MySQL data storage   Commands frm Commands myd Commands myi   The   frm files contain the table definitions  Your   myi files are MyISAM index files  Your   myd files contain the table data   Edit Update   Because of the interest shown in the question here is more info which is found also in the comments   In Windows 8 1  the MySQL databases are stored  by default  here  C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 data   The folder C  ProgramData is a hidden folder  so you must type it into Windows Explorer address to get there  In that data folder  the databases are named   database name folder   database tables and files     For instance    C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 data mydatabase mytable frm C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 data mydatabase mytable ibd    Thank  marty-mcgee for this content

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It s usually in the folder specified below  but ProgramData is usually a hidden folder  To show it  go to control panel search for  folder  then under advanced settings tick show hidden files and click apply  C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 5 Data

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In Windows 7  the MySQL database is stored at     C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 data   Note  this is a hidden folder  And my example is for MySQL Server version 5 6  change the folder name based on your version if different   It comes in handy to know this location because sometimes the MySQL Workbench fails to drop schemas  or import databases   This is mostly due to the presence of files in the db folders that for some reason could not be removed in an earlier process by the Workbench  Remove the files using Windows Explorer and try again  dropping  importing   your problem should be solved    Hope this helps

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I have a default my-default ini file in the root and there is one server configuration    mysqld  sql mode NO ENGINE SUBSTITUTION STRICT TRANS TABLES    So that does not tell me the path   The best way is to connect to the database and run this query   SHOW VARIABLES WHERE Variable Name LIKE   dir      Here s the result of that   basedir                     C  Program Files  x86  MySQL MySQL Server 5 6  character sets dir          C  Program Files  x86  MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 share charsets   datadir                     C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 Data  innodb data home dir     innodb log group home dir      lc messages dir             C  Program Files  x86  MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 share   plugin dir                  C  Program Files  x86  MySQL MySQL Server 5 6 lib plugin   slave load tmpdir           C  Windows SERVIC 2 NETWOR 1 AppData Local Temp tmpdir                      C  Windows SERVIC 2 NETWOR 1 AppData Local Temp   If you want to see all the parameters configured for the database execute this   SHOW VARIABLES    The storage engine variable will tell you if you re using InnoDb or MyISAM

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Just perform a Windows Search for   myi files on your local partitions  Period   As I suspectected  they were located inside a program files folder  instead of using a proper data-only folder like most other database managers do   Why do a my ini file search  open it with an editor  look-up the path string  make sure you don t alter the config file      and then do a second search  Complicated without a shred of added benefit other than to practice touch typing

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If you re using Win10 with Xampp server installed  then you can find the data folder in C  xampp mysql data  Inside the data folder  each database has its own folder which in turn contains the  frm   myi and  myd files which represent for a single table in the database   If for instance  you created a database with the name  myschool and inside the database  you have three tables with the names    Nursery Primary Secondary   Then  you will have  for the Nursery table  nursery frm  nursery myi and nursery myd  Same will go for the Primary and Secondary tables  Thus  in the I mentioned here  you will a total of 9 files inside the database folder named myschool   You can then copy the database folder and use it in your new mysql installation data folder   I hope this helps   Best regards

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I just installed MySQL 5 7 on Windows7  The database files are located in the following directory which is a hidden one  C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 7 Data  The my ini file is located in the same root  C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 5 7

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MYSQL 8 0   Search my ini in disk  we will find this folder      C  ProgramData MySQL MySQL Server 8 0   It s ProgramData  not Program file   Data is in sub-folder   Data   Each database owns a folder  each table is file  each index is 1  files   Here is a sample database sakila

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That should be your  install path  data e g  C  apps wamp bin mysql mysql5 5 8 data  databasename    How to recover MySQL database from  myd   myi   frm files MySQL directory structure Restoring MySQL database from physical files

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C  Program Files MySQL MySQL Workbench 6 3 CE sys  paste URLin to window file  and get Tables  Procedures  Functions from this directory

[mysql] Where does MySQL store database files on Windows and what are the names of the files?

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