Question

After some virus activity I’m unable to connect to a MySQL db on my laptop. When I look in the task manager (I’m using Windows 7), there’s no sign of a MySQL instance. I can’t connect thru the prompt window or MySQL workbench.

Do I need to do a reinstall? Can I do a reinstall without losing my data?

Any suggestions?

UPDATE:
Here’s the error message in mysql workbench.

UPDATE2:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users>net start mysql
System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.


C:\Users>

UPDATE3:

When I type netstat -a in the cmd window, there doesn’t appear to be anything going on on 127.0.0.1:3306.

UPDATE4:

C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin>mysql -u root
ERROR 2003 (HY000): Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)

UPDATE5:

Variables (--variable-name=value)
and boolean options {FALSE|TRUE}  Value (after reading options)
--------------------------------- -----------------------------
count                             0
debug-check                       FALSE
debug-info                        FALSE
force                             FALSE
compress                          FALSE
character-sets-dir                (No default value)
default-character-set             (No default value)
host                              (No default value)
no-beep                           FALSE
port                              3306
relative                          FALSE
shared-memory-base-name           (No default value)
socket                            (No default value)
sleep                             0
ssl                               FALSE
ssl-ca                            (No default value)
ssl-capath                        (No default value)
ssl-cert                          (No default value)
ssl-cipher                        (No default value)
ssl-key                           (No default value)
ssl-verify-server-cert            FALSE
user                              (No default value)
verbose                           FALSE
vertical                          FALSE
connect_timeout                   43200
shutdown_timeout                  3600

---

C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin>mysqld --console
120207 14:06:00 [Warning] '--default-character-set' is deprecated and will be re
moved in a future release. Please use '--character-set-server' instead.
120207 14:06:00 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
120207 14:06:00  InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 100.0M
120207 14:06:00  InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
120207 14:06:00  InnoDB: Operating system error number 5 in a file operation.
InnoDB: The error means mysqld does not have the access rights to
InnoDB: the directory. It may also be you have created a subdirectory
InnoDB: of the same name as a data file.
InnoDB: File name .\ibdata1
InnoDB: File operation call: 'open'.
InnoDB: Cannot continue operation.

Answer 1

It turned out it was my fault. When I ran HijackThis, one of the lines suggested for deletion was :

O23 - Service: MySQL - Unknown owner - C:\Program.exe (file missing)

DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE!!!

Luckily HijackThis keeps backups of changes and I was able to restore this line and MySQL works fine.