Can i have MySQL Data on some other drive?

Hello,

I have MySql installed on my C:, Is it possible to have the data on some other drive?

Urgent Help Required.

I was advised to do the following
Assuming this is a windows install:
1- Stop the mysql server
2- Edit my.ini in your windows directory (or winnt or wherever)
3- Change the data directory line

datadir=X:/folder/path

4- Copy everything in your existing data directory over
5- Restart the mysql service.

the result i got from that was as follows

Firstly i could not find my.ini in winnt directory. Hence copied the mylarge.ini to winnt and renamed it to my.ini

I also changed the location of datadir, after doing this i restarted mysql and it gave me the following error
Could not start the mysql sevice on Local Computer
Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly

Could you plese tell me where am i going wrong?

Please HELP ME!!!!

in the bin directory of the mysql directory there is a utility called winmysqladmin.exe. Run that utility and you can modify the my.ini file directly from there. Being that the utility tries to start the service when it starts, you may experience the error again, but the utility should run and allow you to modify the ini.

check to see if you have a file in your windows directory called my.cnf. if you do, open that file to see what is in it. The manual states that mysql uses either the .cnf file or a .ini file. The admin tool specifically creates an .ini file. If you find the .cnf file. rename the .ini file to .old and move your data folders back to their original location and start the service to see if it runs. if it does, follow the directions from before, but modify the .cnf file for the data path...or create a new my.ini file with the windows admin tool told you about.

Hello,

Thanks a lot for the help...but nothing seems to be working...the problem still persits.

I changed my datadir using winmysqladmin.exe to some folder on d: Then i renamed the data folder to data_old and copied the contents of this folder to a new location. After doing all this i restarted the mysql service and got the same error.

What am i doing wrong : Please Help!

Thanks & Regards
Bosky

I just followed the steps I outlined on my server and everything worked perfectly. I stopped the service, changed the data directory, moved the data, restarted the service..all good, I am wondering if you hosed your mysql install when you initially tried to move the data. I am not sure if re-installing mysql will help, but what you can try is first...Stop the service, change your data_old folder back to data and then rename the my.ini file to my.old. Then try opening the winmysqladmin tool. winmysqladmin should try to write a new my.ini file with the defaults. then start all over again. worst case scenario, uninstall mysql and reinstall...hope you made a backup of your DBs before you started...

Thanks a lot...i had to reinstall mysql though...but is taking the data from the new folder...thanks a lot.