I backed up my server so I could upgrade my OS. After re-insyalling everything, I copied my databases over to the new server. Instead of exporting the databases into 1 big SQL file that I could execute, I simply made a tarball of everything in /var/lib/mysql/. Granted, it worked, but it seems like everything isn't there. My last ld copying over the files instead of exporting the database cause me to lose information?
Copying the files should work normally. But you should not copy everything back, copy just the content of the subfolder that is named like the database, then make sure that the folder and all files inside are owned by the mysql user and group. Then open e.g. phpmyadmin and run a repair on all table, as some of them might not be closed correctly and you should repair them.
