MySQL failed to start. Error 1053. Windows Server 2008 R2

Question

I did a server restart for my web server and on restart, MySQL won't start. If I use taskmanager to kill mysqld.exe and try the start from services console, it gets about 50% through the startup, stalls for a long time, and when it eventually finishes it shows the message:

"Windows could not start the MySQL service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion."

I had this once before and from memory all I had to do to correct it was delete the ib_logfile0 and ib_logfile1 files.

This has not helped this time.

Please help! I have 9 websites down and need them backup ASAP.

UPDATE:

An update on this... If I change the default database engine in my.ini from InnoDB to MyISAM and enable the skip_innodb option, the MySQL service starts. But none of the websites work properly. (eg. If I go to a wordpress site, it loads the Wordpress installation wizard instead of the existing website). So I think it has something to do with INNODB.

UPDATE 2:

MySQL Error log last entries (before I deleted the .err file):

Version: '5.1.66-community'  socket: ''  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server (GPL)
130829  9:47:27 [Note] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld: Normal shutdown

130829  9:47:27 [Note] Event Scheduler: Purging the queue. 0 events
130829  9:47:27  InnoDB: Starting shutdown...
130829  9:47:29  InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 0 725928381
130829  9:47:29 [Note] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld: Shutdown complete

130829 11:49:13 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
130829 11:49:14  InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 47.0M
130829 11:49:15  InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
130829 11:49:18  InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 725928381
130829 12:04:26 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events
130829 12:04:26 [Note] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld: ready for connections.
Version: '5.1.66-community'  socket: ''  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server (GPL)
130829 12:14:22 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
130829 12:14:22 [Note] Plugin 'InnoDB' is disabled.
130829 12:14:23 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events
130829 12:14:23 [Note] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld: ready for connections.
Version: '5.1.66-community'  socket: ''  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server (GPL)
130829 12:28:45 [Note] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld: Normal shutdown

130829 12:28:45 [Note] Event Scheduler: Purging the queue. 0 events
130829 12:28:45 [Note] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld: Shutdown complete

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Solution

I managed to get it working again late yesterday afternoon by removing the existing ib_logfile* files, the existing MYSERVER.err file (which was 981KB by the way) and making the following changes to the my.ini file:

• increased innodb_additional_mem_pool_size from 2M to 100M

• increased innodb_buffer_pool_size from 47M to 100M

• increased innodb_log_file_size from 24M to 50M

I don't know what possessed me to change these, but I was at a "almost at last resort" stage (which would've been to build a new VM guest and configure IIS/MySQL/PHP from scratch).
How or why these changes made a difference, I don't know, but at least it's working again.

Comments

[GioMac]

what about mysql logs?

[Reece]

Are you referring to the "server_name".err files in the data folder? There was nothing useful in there that tells me where it's getting stuck or why. Is there another logging that can be turned on?

[GioMac]

yes, please copy contents somewhere

[Himalaya Garg]

This link helped me find the error in console.

[HPWD]

Our issues are nearly identical. About the only difference is the timestamp on the error log. :) To fix mine, I copied the contents of my database directory and then deleted everything inside. I uninstalled MariaDB and reinstalled. Confirmed the service did start and that I could connect using Heidi. After that, I stopped mysql (technically MariaDB since during install, I renamed mine to MariaDB), restored the contents from my backup using Beyond Compare to only bring back the files I wanted), and then started the service. NO idea why it worked that way but it is what it is.