Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows Using a  noinstall  ZIP Archive When the MySQL server starts on Windows, it looks for option files in several locations, such as the Windows directory,  C:\ , and the MySQL installation directory (for the full list of locations, see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files” ). The Windows directory typically is named something like  C: \WINDOWS . You can determine its exact location from the value of the  WINDIR  environment variable using the following command: C:\>  echo %WINDIR% MySQL looks for options in each location first in the  my.ini  file, and then in the  my.cnf  file. However, to avoid confusion, it is best if you use only one file. If your PC uses a boot loader where  C:  is not the boot drive, your only option is to use the  my.ini  file. Whichever option file you use, it must be a plain text file. Note When using the MySQL Installer to install MySQL Server, it creates the  my.ini at the default location, and the user executing MySQL Installer is granted full permissions to this new  my.ini  file. In other words, be sure that the MySQL Server user has permission to read the my.ini  file. You can also make use of the example option files included with your MySQL distribution; see Section 5.1.2, “Server Configuration Defaults” . An option file can be created and modified with any text editor, such as Notepad. For example, if MySQL is installed in  E:\mysql  and the data directory is in  E:\mydata\data , you can create an option file containing a  [mysqld]  section to specify values for the  basedir  and  datadir  options: Microsoft Windows path names are specified in option files using (forward) slashes rather than backslashes. If you do use backslashes, double them: [mysqld] # set basedir to your installation path basedir=E:/mysql # set datadir to the location of your data directory datadir=E:/mydata/data [mysqld] # set basedir to your installation path basedir=E:\\mysql # set datadir to the location of your data directory datadir=E:\\mydata\\data The rules for use of backslash in option file values are given in Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files” . The ZIP archive does not include a  data  directory. To initialize a MySQL installation by creating the data directory and populating the tables in the mysql system database, initialize MySQL using either  -- initialize  or  --initialize-insecure . For additional information, see Section 2.10.1, “Initializing the Data Directory” . If you would like to use a data directory in a different location, you should copy the entire contents of the data  directory to the new location. For example, if you want to use  E:\mydata  as the data directory instead, you must do two things: 1. Move the entire  data  directory and all of its contents from the default location (for example  C: \Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\data ) to  E:\mydata . 2. Use a  --datadir  option to specify the new data directory location each time you start the server. 144