MySQL incredibly slow on WAMP and XAMPP

Question

I've installed WAMP on my new Windows 8 machine and for some reason when I use PHPMyAdmin to import an sql file (it's only about 5mb), it takes several minutes before timing out. And then when I check I can see it's only imported a fraction of the tables.

I've tried other sql files and it's the same story. These same sql files import perfectly fine (and in a few couple of seconds) on my Windows 7 machine also running WAMP.

I've since uninstalled WAMP and tried XAMPP, and the problem still exists. Even just browsing the databases with PHPMyAdmin takes a long time between page loads.

I am guessing it's a problem with MySQL. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Answer 1

When MySQL is really slow on windows (not 30ms slower) is nearly always a matter of a forgotten localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 in settings or URL. Very few times it is due to a very slow fragmented hard drive (acting slower due to windows complex ACL and parallel processes using it). MySQL is slower in some benchmarks on windows but the difference is so small that cant change your experience.