Where does MySQL stored the data in my harddisk?

Here i provide a simple user guide to find out where does MySQL database stored the data in our hard disk, both in Windows and Linux.

Windows

1) Locate the my.ini, which store in the MySQL installation folder.

For Example,

C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\my.ini

2) Open the “my.ini” with our favor text editor.

#Path to installation directory. All paths are usually resolved relative to this.
basedir="C:/Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/"

#Path to the database root
datadir="C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/Data/"

Find the “datadir”, this is the where does MySQL stored the data in Windows.

Linux

1) Locate the my.cnf with the find / -name my.cnf command.

yongmo@myserver:~$ find / -name my.cnf
find: /home/lost+found: Permission denied
find: /lost+found: Permission denied
/etc/mysql/my.cnf


Copy

2) viewthe my.cnf file cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf

yongmo@myserver:~$ cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf
#
# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# You can copy this to one of:
# - "/etc/mysql/my.cnf" to set global options,
# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
# 
[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
user   = mysql
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket  = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port   = 3306
basedir  = /usr
datadir  = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir  = /tmp
language = /usr/share/mysql/english
skip-external-locking

3) Find the “datadir”, this is where does MySQL stored the data in Linux system.