Restoring a mySQL database

[JonathanR]

Hi all,

 

I have been battling away getting my osCommerce site and database back to where it was before I messed up! Basically, I thought I was making back-ups of everything in the correct way, but it seems that after wanting to revert back to a mySQL back-up I had made earlier... it didn't work!

 

I believe now that I am doing things correctly. However, before I try and do a test restore of an earlier back-up of the same database, I need to check something out. When performing a database restore from a back-up, is the existing database wiped completely first, and then restored, or does it look for the same fields and information in the back-up that it currently already has, and will only proceed if everything matches up?

 

I ask because I was getting "duplicate row names" and "row not found" type errors when restoring. I had run a contribution .sql file on my database after backing up, which I assume changes and adds fields etc etc. But because the contribution didn't quite do what I wanted, I attempted a restore and got those errors.

 

I hope I am making sense and thanks in advance.

 

Jonathan

 

Edit: Sorry. I posted it in the wrong place. :wub:

[JonathanR]

I think I may have answered my own question. I was trying to restore my back-ups (via import) into the database that already exists ie: the backed-up database. And this failed. The reason why I was doing it this way was because I didn't want to have to edit the configure.php files with new database information.

 

However, when creating a brand new empty database, with new names and passwords, the back-ups restore perfectly. Entirely logical because, in a real environment where a database has died on me, I wouldn't want to restore to that specific database anyway. A quick amendment to the configure.php files reflecting the new database names and I was back up and running.

 

So, my assumption would be that if I ditch the database I no longer want to use (or it is corruputed), and create a new database using the names and passwords of the old one, I won't need to change the configure files, and everything should be fine and dandy.

 

I will stop asking silly questions one day!

 

Jonathan