I’m experiencing an issue where I can’t access my MySQL database in Laragon due to a DLL error, but my main concern is recovering the database data. When trying to start MySQL, I get this error:

Service MySQL can not start. Reason:
mysqld: Can’t open shared library ‘C:laragonbinmysqlm…component_reference_cache.dll’
(errno: 126 The specified module could not be found.)

System Configuration:

• Windows 10
• Laragon 5.0.0
• MySQL 8.0.30
• Database Location: C:laragondatamysql-8cashier_db

The database contains critical business data that I need to recover. While fixing the MySQL service would be nice, my priority is safely recovering the data from my existing database files.

I’ve tried several approaches to recover the data:

1. First Attempt:

• Action: Copied all database files from backup folder to a new MySQL data directory
• Expected: Database would be accessible with all data intact
• Result: MySQL service wouldn’t start, getting errors about duplicate tablespace IDs

2. Second Attempt:

• Action: Initialized new MySQL instance and copied only the specific database folder
• Expected: Clean MySQL installation with restored database
• Result: Same component_reference_cache.dll error

3. Third Attempt:

• Action: Tried to move only the .ibd files from the old database
• Expected: Database structure with data would be recovered
• Result: MySQL fails to start when including ibdata1 file

Current Situation:

• Have complete backup of original database files in mysql-8.bak
• All .ibd files for ‘cashier_db’ are preserved
• Original ibdata1 file is available