 <ol> <li>If you don't have binlogs enabled, or cannot be sure at which point your backup snapshot was made trying to get the datadir running in another server is about your only option. (Which for maximum possibility of recovery should be as much like the original as possible in MySQL version and other environmental data).</li> <li>If you <em>do</em> have active binlogs, look at <a href="http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/point_in_time_recovery.html" rel="nofollow">this manual</a></li> </ol>