Drop auto increment hack w/o alter table?
I tried something similar just now
Here is MySQL for My PC
mysql&gt; select * from information_schema.global_variables where variable_name='datadir' or variable_name like 'versio%';
+-------------------------+------------------------------+
| VARIABLE_NAME           | VARIABLE_VALUE               |
+-------------------------+------------------------------+
| VERSION_COMMENT         | MySQL Community Server (GPL) |
| VERSION                 | 5.5.12-log                   |
| VERSION_COMPILE_MACHINE | x86                          |
| DATADIR                 | C:\MySQL_5.5.12\data\        |
| VERSION_COMPILE_OS      | Win64                        |
+-------------------------+------------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

I will run this using MyISAM

Step 01) create a table called 'rolando'
Step 02) insert 'dominique' and 'diamond'
Step 03) copy the table structure to 'pamela'
Step 04) alter 'pamela' to not have auto_increment
Step 05) In DOS, copy rolando.MYD to pamela.MYD
Step 06) run REPAIR TABLE pamela; (Rebuild pamela.MYI)
Step 07) run SELECT COUNT(1) FROM pamela;
Step 08) run SHOW CREATE TABLE pamela\G
Step 09) run SELECT * FROM pamela;
Step 10) insert 'carlik' into pamela
Step 11) run SELECT * FROM pamela;

Let's see if these steps are kosher.
Here are Steps 1-4
mysql&gt; drop table if exists rolando;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql&gt; drop table if exists pamela;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; create table rolando
    -&gt; (
    -&gt;     name varchar(20),
    -&gt;     id int not null auto_increment,
    -&gt;     primary key (id)
    -&gt; ) ENGINE=MyISAM;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.05 sec)

mysql&gt; insert into rolando (name) values ('dominique'),('diamond');
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 2  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql&gt; select * from rolando;
+-----------+----+
| name      | id |
+-----------+----+
| dominique |  1 |
| diamond   |  2 |
+-----------+----+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; create table pamela like rolando;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.05 sec)

mysql&gt; show create table rolando\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: rolando
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `rolando` (
  `name` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=3 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; show create table pamela\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: pamela
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `pamela` (
  `name` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
1 row in set (0.02 sec)

mysql&gt; alter table pamela modify id int(11) unsigned not null;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.11 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql&gt; show create table pamela\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: pamela
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `pamela` (
  `name` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; select count(1) from pamela;
+----------+
| count(1) |
+----------+
|        0 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql&gt;

Here is Step 6
C:\&gt;copy C:\MySQL_5.5.12\data\test\rolando.MYD C:\MySQL_5.5.12\data\test\pamela.MYD
        1 file(s) copied.

C:\&gt;

Here are the rest of the Steps starting at Step 7
mysql&gt; repair table pamela;
+-------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
| Table       | Op     | Msg_type | Msg_text                           |
+-------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
| test.pamela | repair | warning  | Number of rows changed from 0 to 2 |
| test.pamela | repair | status   | OK                                 |
+-------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.03 sec)

mysql&gt; select count(1) from pamela;
+----------+
| count(1) |
+----------+
|        2 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; insert into pamela (name,id) values ('carlik',3);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; select * from pamela;
+-----------+----+
| name      | id |
+-----------+----+
| dominique |  1 |
| diamond   |  2 |
| carlik    |  3 |
+-----------+----+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt;

Dangerous game, isn't it ???
Guess what? Stuff like this is actually published in &quot;High Performance MySQL : Optimization, Backups, Replication, and more&quot;, Pages 146-148 under the Subheading Speeding Up ALTER TABLE. Page 147 Paragraph 1 says:

The technique we are about to demonstrate is unsupported,
undocumented, and may not work. Use it at your risk. We advise you to
back up you data first!

I also had an earlier post when someone ask a similar question : Can I rename the values in a MySQL ENUM column in one query?
You got guts, @atxdba !!!