After installing MySQL 5.5 into an alternative path, attempting to start the service on Windows 2008 R2 results in this error in the Even Viewer:
Log Name: Application
Source: MySQL
Date: 11/10/2011 2:46:22 PM
Event ID: 100
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: ISOWEB1B
Description:
Can't find messagefile 'E:\in\mysqld\MySQL Server 5.5\share\errmsg.sys'
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://www.mysql.com.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns='
http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event'><System><Provider Name='MySQL'/><EventID Qualifiers='49152'>100</EventID><Level>2</Level><Task>0</Task><Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords><TimeCreated SystemTime='2011-11-10T22:46:22.000000000Z'/><EventRecordID>849</EventRecordID><Channel>Application</Channel><Computer>ISOWEB1B</Computer><Security/></System><EventData><Data>Can't find messagefile 'E:\in\mysqld\MySQL Server 5.5\share\errmsg.sys'
</Data></EventData></Event>
If you look closely, you will see that the path is malformed with some goofy unicode character. I can't find anywhere that it might be coming from. Multiple installs on different server produce this exact behavior. Trying to start it from the command line yields similar problems:
C:\Users\Administrator>"E:\bin\mysqld\MySQL Server 5.5\bin\mysqld" --defaults-file="E:\bin\mysqld\datafiles\my.ini"
111110 14:46:22 [ERROR] Can't find messagefile 'E:in\mysqld\MySQL Server 5.5\share\errmsg.sys'
111110 14:46:22 [Warning] Can't create test file Ein\mysqld\datafiles\data\ISOWEB1B.lower-test
111110 14:46:22 [Warning] Can't create test file Ein\mysqld\datafiles\data\ISOWEB1B.lower-test
E:\bin\mysqld\MySQL Server 5.5\bin\mysqld: Can't change dir to 'Ein\mysqld\datafiles\data\' (Errcode: 22)
111110 14:46:22 [ERROR] Aborting
111110 14:46:22 [Note]
As you can see, the same malformed path shows up. It's like it's screwing up the defaults-file path. You can see it turns "E:\bin" into "Ein"