WAMP re-install issue with connecting to old files

The WAMP server on my wife’s PC suddenly didn’t work, so I have re-installed a new copy of WAMP.

I copied the WordPress files and the data files from the mysql 5.6.12 folder, so I have a backup of the data.

The new installation has a mysql 5.6.17 folder. It installed right next to the old 5.6.12 folder in the bin folder. I need to move the data folder to the 5.6.17 folder, obviously. So I first made a copy of the 5.6.17 folder and put it aside. Next I copied the contents of the 5.6.12 data folder (which was the wordpress tables folder, and several other day files over to the 5.6.17 data folder). Two file conflicts occured that I overwrote (keeping the old files – I have backups of both the 5.6.12 and 5.6.17 folders).

I launched WAMP and went to localhost/wordpress and I get the “five minute installer” page. So the old data is not coming in.

I read this thread and his situation was almost identical to mine. I too had problem with Wamp due to a desinstallation of Aestan tray menu! His solution at the end was to edit the my.ini file so that it looked for the right data.

I went into my.ini in the 5.6.17 data folder and found this section below. What I did was edit the last few lines so that it now referenced the 5.6.12 folder instead of the 5.6.17 folder.

# The MySQL server
[wampmysqld]
port        = 3306
socket        = /tmp/mysql.sock
key_buffer_size = 16M
max_allowed_packet = 1M
sort_buffer_size = 512K
net_buffer_length = 8K
read_buffer_size = 256K
read_rnd_buffer_size = 512K
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 8M
basedir=c:/wamp/bin/mysql/mysql5.6.12
log-error=c:/wamp/logs/mysql.log
datadir=c:/wamp/bin/mysql/mysql5.6.12/data

I tried to go to localhost/wordpress and I still have the five minute installer message. So obviously I’m not connecting correctly.

This is where I’m stuck. My WordPress is active, but I need to connect to the old data. Any insight would be helpful. Thanks!