I need help reinstalling my MySQL database from a previous Windows XP computer that crashed, to a new one running Windows 7. I was able to recover all the files from the old C: drive, and I would like advice on how to set up a reinstall of MySQL, and where to put the old files. The original version of MySQL was 5.1, which is not current. Is it safe to proceed with 5.5 ?
To move the databases, you could create SQL dumps with phpMyAdmin and also restore them with phpMyAdmin on the new MySQL server.
Help reinstalling MySQL database to new computer I was able to get a successful reinstallation. I did a clean install using the Windows installer, then replaced the new ibdata1 file with the one that I had recovered from the crashed computer. I didn't expect that to work so cleanly. Thanks to everyone who offered assistance.