I dont know anything about databases or MySQL beyond the absolute basics so lets start with that. I moved the /var/lib/mysql from the / to a mounted volume which I remounted as /var/lib/mysql after moving the files to temp storage.
Ok, now when I go to my sites, its like they dont have any database attached to them. Wordpress wants to reinstall, other sites cant connect to their databases either.
When I go to the file system directly (/var/lib/mysql) and look for the files, I see that they are in their respective directories (I even restored from a backup just to be extra sure the files were there).
I have tried to repair and check the tables. But it keeps saying that some of the tables dont exist.
I am totally lost and frustrated.
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'log_error'
point to the name of an empty file? Do you get any error output if you try to restart MySQL?