Restore dropped mysql database

I create a database each year from the previous year, back up and then clean up the tables. So I have databases for the past 3 years.

This year I did not do a backup and accidentally dropped the database of 2011. The schema is always the same for all the databases, but of course the entries are different for each year.

After dropping the database of 2011, the folder no longer exists in C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\data, but I see ib_logfile0 and ibdata1 files under the above path. Is there any way I can restore the dropped database?

There was no backup done for 2011 and I do not know what is binary logging.

You can try and use data recovery software to recover the blocks as odds are the blocks haven't been overwritten yet. If they have been overwritten, then the data is gone.

I'm sorry to say, but you've just learned why backups are important.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#6274, answer score: 6