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I have what I believe is a corrupted MySQL table. In the database I can see there is only a .frm file, not a .mdi or .mdy for it. How can I recover data from this .frm file?

I believe that I have to get data from the ibdata1 file?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 4 down vote accepted

There is no data in the .frm file; that file only contains the table definition. However, if you're not running a MyISAM table, it's expected that there will be no .MYD or .MYD files, because those are only used for MyISAM tables. Instead, the data will be somewhere else -- for InnoDB tables, for instance, it'll be in your ibdata* files (or perhaps in a per-table file if you've got file_per_table turned on).

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is there a tool i can use to just view data in the ibdata file? –  Beginner Jul 12 '11 at 11:11
Most people use MySQL. –  womble Jul 12 '11 at 11:20
Lol yeh i think i forgotten my password, i give it a go thanks –  Beginner Jul 12 '11 at 11:23
That's easy to fix: debian-administration.org/articles/442 –  womble Jul 12 '11 at 22:50

The .frm file doesn't really contain any data--it's just the table definition. You can read the specifics here.

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