I have no input to the MS side of things because I'm a Linux guy, but as for this - get a new host, or email their support telling them that you're looking. My hosting company would do this for me 24/7, without question.

It's a self administered server... they won't help.

That's what I mean - imo, once you get it sorted out, take your business elsewhere. Didn't mean to derail your thread though - good luck, just wish I could be of assistance but as I said, I'm a linux guy. :(

Thats messed up.. so you ahve a Hard Drive that Crashes, they help you with that and then tell you that you are SOL because its a self administered server.. terrible host. If I were you, I would take your business elsewhere..

There are plenty of people here that can help you reinstall MySQL tho bud.

I will recreate the forum from zero. Lost 23,000 members in one day. Not that I was getting any benefits but its sad.

Its your call, but a better option would be to move to another server and ask them to restore from that backup. Just like many suggested, why would you lose so many members and all the hard work you were probably putting.

Most of us can only dream of having 23.000 members and destroying it only because of your hosting is a terrible decision.

Just my 2c..

I don't know how you are going to accomplish that with out first fixing mysql itself. You still need to somehow restore the mysql database itself as that contains the users table that drives mysql to begin with. Once you get THAT fixed, then the other stuff will work ;)

Like I said, there are people here willing to help, don't just give up. That is a heck of a lot of users to give up on.

yes, that is not the route to take, this is easily fixable whether it be on a linux box or a winblowz server, fix mysql and your all set, as long as the actual db files are good.

I loathe mysqldump, and always do backups via moving the raw .frm,MYI and MYD files around, including using mysqlhotcopy.

Restoring your db should not be an issue, I have restored from a fatal disk crash from these backups.

It would really help us help you if you mentioned exactly what errors you are getting, and also if there are any errors in the mysql error file

Did you lose my.cnf as well?

If you try to restore a database with the raw files, then ensure that:
- MySQL server is stopped while restoring the files.
- User/group/permissions are set correct on the files/directory.

It might not work, but that is your best chance.