My favourite thing about MyISAM MySQL tables!

One important feature that distinguish MyISAM from InnoDB is that MyISAM tables are generally binary portable. If you need to move a table from one MySQL server to the other, just copy the files from first server to the second server and you are ready to go. In some instances it’s a lot handier than using say mysqldump.

I found out my recent MYSQL backups were currupted... Only after our server had been compromised!  So I spent half a day reading up on how to try and recover data from an old MySQL  Data Folder.  Untill I stumbled across this quote hidden in one of the comments on this page: MySQL: the Pros and Cons of MyISAM Tables.

So for MyISAM tables it is possible to copy the folder containing the database table files (by default found in your MYSQL data directory eg. MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\data\nameofschema) and paste it into the equivilent data folder of a different MtSQL installation.  of course this will work best if the installation is a similar version to the original.

Very useful to know if like me your MySQL dumps were currupted or you are foolish enough not to back up your data with a sqldump in the first place.