Re: Questions about migrating from MySQL 4.1 to latest community version on Windows XP

[Sergio Andres De La Cruz Rodriguez]

Hi Purvez:

I have never done what you are trying to do before, but here is what I would suggest you to do: Do not install the latest MySQL version in the first place. I would install instead the very same version your server was running (4.1). Then I would shut down the server, copy the data files to the appropriate place (its data dir) and restart the server. If you're lucky, you'll get your databases back. Then you would migrate your databases to the next newer server version as explained here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/upgrading-from-previous-series.html

By the way, the suggested upgrade path is to do it in steps from version to version, so instead of directly upgrading from 4.1 to 5.6, you should go 4.1 -> 5.0 -> 5.1 -> 5.5 --> 5.6. There are some shortcuts, though. You can use mysqldump to back up your DB and try to restore it to 5.6 directly. Or you can use the MySQL Workbench Schema Transfer Wizard (in Workbench, go to Database menu and then to Schema Transfer Wizard). Please note that Workbench cannot connect to MySQL Servers older than 5.0 so if you are going this way, you would have to migrate your databases to MySQL 5.0 first.

Cheers,

Sergio A. de la Cruz Rodríguez
Software Developer
Oracle Corp.