Oracle 5.0 Reference Manual page 100

Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows Using a
You can also make use of the example option files included with your MySQL distribution; see
Section 5.1.2, "Server Configuration
An option file can be created and modified with any text editor, such as Notepad. For example, if
MySQL is installed in
option file containing a
[mysqld]
# set basedir to your installation path
basedir=E:/mysql
# set datadir to the location of your data directory
datadir=E:/mydata/data
Note that Windows path names are specified in option files using (forward) slashes rather than
backslashes. If you do use backslashes, double them:
[mysqld]
# set basedir to your installation path
basedir=E:\\mysql
# set datadir to the location of your data directory
datadir=E:\\mydata\\data
The rules for use of backslash in option file values are given in
On Windows, the MySQL installer places the data directory directly under the directory where you
install MySQL. If you would like to use a data directory in a different location, you should copy the
entire contents of the
\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server
Files\MySQL\MySQL Server
instead, you must do two things:
1. Move the entire
Server 5.0\data
2. Use a
--datadir
server.
2.10.4.3. Selecting a MySQL Server Type
The following table shows the available servers for Windows in MySQL 5.0.
Binary
mysqld-nt
mysqld
mysqld-debug
All of the preceding binaries are optimized for modern Intel processors, but should work on any Intel
i386-class or higher processor.
Each of the servers in a distribution support the same set of storage engines. The
statement displays which engines a given server supports.
All Windows MySQL 5.0 servers have support for symbolic linking of database directories.
MySQL supports TCP/IP on all Windows platforms. MySQL servers on Windows support named pipes
as indicated in the following list. However, the default is to use TCP/IP regardless of platform. (Named
pipes are slower than TCP/IP in many Windows configurations.)
Use of named pipes is subject to these conditions:
Defaults".
and the data directory is in E:\mydata\data, you can create an
E:\mysql
section to specify values for the
[mysqld]
directory to the new location. For example, if MySQL is installed in
data
5.0\data. If you want to use
directory and all of its contents from
data
to E:\mydata.
[404] option to specify the new data directory location each time you start the
Description
Optimized binary with named-pipe support
Optimized binary without named-pipe support
Like mysqld-nt, but compiled with full debugging and automatic memory
allocation checking
noinstall
basedir
Section 4.2.3.3, "Using Option
5.0, the data directory is by default in
E:\mydata
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL
80
Zip Archive
and options:
datadir
Files".
C:\Program
as the data directory
SHOW ENGINES
C: