Recover MySQL ibdata1 file I had mysql running on my VPS. Today it crashed for no good reason!

I tried service mysql start, it gave me start: Job failed to start.

First thing I did was to backup /var/lib/mysql which contained folders corresponding to my databases and these other files:


debian-5.5.flag
ibdata1
ib_logfile0
ib_logfile1
mysql_upgrade_info


I removed /etc/mysql and did sudo apt-get purge mysql-server mysql-common and then installed everything again, the result was the same: start: Job failed to start.

I went to /var/lib/mysql/ and deleted ib* files. I could start mysql then, but some of the tables were problematic: I could see their names in PhpMyAdmin, but when tried to run queries, mysql errored out that the table doesn't exist.

I assume ibdata1 is corrupted! I put innodb_force_recovery = 0 and tried it upto innodb_force_recovery = 6, none of them worked and I got the same error when I tried to start mysql.

I still have the whole /var/lib/mysql backup.

Any ideas why this happened and how I can recover the data and start mysql again?
What You make right - it is backup all files from /var/lib/mysql

all other steps - wrong

Your current error (in PHPMyAdmin with phantom tables) - because You have Your database folder with .frm files for table structure, and empty (new) ibdata.

What You can do now - revert all back (restore files in it original place)
Then You can:
- check error log file, for error message
- start change innodb_force_recovery from 1 to 6