Then it seems to have recovered all the original start up tables without data in them.

Hopefully this is what you are going for. I don’t keep a local server going on my laptop… only on my LAN and a shared hosting.

-You need to log into your hosted server first with ssh from the terminal.
-Then log into mysql from inside ssh session and drop the target database, the create a new one of the same name.

The questions you need to ask yourself now are:
-Does my hosting give ssh access?
-Does my hosting give DROP privileges to my user?
-Does my hosting give CREATE privileges to my user?
-do all the tables in my wordpress database have wp_ as a prefix?

If you meet all those requirements, then you can just drop the database real quick in one statement. If you own the server or have a dedicated hosting then you can do that too probably.

I don’t use WP but I’ve used elgg which has a similar database scheme and this typically worked for me.

To drop a database from mysql server:

go to your terminal and type

$ ssh username@host_domainname.com
-(curtis@curtisblackwell.com maybe?)
-(you’ll be asked to add private kerbros key, type ‘Y’)

-it will ask you for your username again
-then enter your password (invisible input buffer for passwords)

Now you need to know your database username and password
(next line may vary depending on your hosting… it’s easy to find out)

$ mysql -u curtis -p (now press enter to type your password)
(type password)
-now you should be in your mysql command line

//query below drops whole database from server
mysql> DROP DATABASE wordpress (or whatever it’s named);
//query below creates a new clean database with same name
mysql> Create DATABASE wordpress;
mysql> EXIT

$ exit (to leave your ssh session)

now you have done the same amount of work in 2 queries

I should not have assumed you can read my mind… hope this is useful, you may be better off using phpmyadmin if that is what your hosting wants it’s users to use…

i take it the brunyon and ***** should be replaced with username and password associated with the db?

$ mysql -u brunyon -p *****
(mysql prompt)

mysql> DROP DATABASE _wp;
mysql> CREATE DATABASE _wp;
mysql> EXIT

YAY all done!

I found the web gui to be a little easier to accidentally drop a table or whole database you didn’t really want to… however your shared hosting might not have shell access (which is lame if true…). Writing a deliberate SQL statment to drop the tables/whole database is a little safer in my humble opinion.