Taking a MySQL snapshot and recreating the database?

If a snapshot of the database is taken, can it be copied over to another drive and re-cr开发者_JAVA技巧eated?

I'm not sure what you mean by "copied over to another drive", but a very good tool to create a snapshot of a running database is mysqlhotcopy.

mysqlhotcopy is a Perl script that was originally written and contributed by Tim Bunce. It uses FLUSH TABLES, LOCK TABLES, and cp or scp to make a database backup. It is a fast way to make a backup of the database or single tables, but it can be run only on the same machine where the database directories are located.