MySQL: Using Symbolic Links for Databases on linux

Someone gave me a database. It's (1) a folder containing files with the following extensions: MYD, MYI, TRG, TRN, frm, opt; (2) a file with the sql-extension called db_add_nodata.sql , and (3) a file called sphinx.conf I have generated my database using the file with the sql-extension (am not sure what you call it, perhaps this file is called the sqldump?) in the following way: mysql -u root -p < db_add_nodata.sql Internally, it executes CREATE DATABASE 'technical1';. And I find the folder technical1 in my data dir /var/lib/mysql/technical1. I used the most recent version of the official documentation on the mysql website to try to create a soft link to the data which is on an external hard drive and mounted at such that the data are in /media/user/drive/data: $ mv technical1 /media/user/drive/ $ mv /media/user/drive/data/* /media/user/drive/technical1 $ ln -s /media/user/drive/technical1 /var/lib/mysql $ ls -lah technical1 drwx------ 2 mysql mysql 4.0K Jan 16 13:58 technical1 **Questions** - If I now execute the sql-statement SHOW DATABASES, the database technical1 is no longer showing up. Why's that? - Do the other steps look reasonable and correct, or can you see something else which looks odd?