title: MySQL restoring inconsistent database
body: <p>As a follow up to this question:
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2482491/is-copying-var-lib-mysql-a-good-alterntive-to-mysqldump">Is copying /var/lib/mysql a good alterntive to mysqldump?</a></p>
  
  <p>If I don't stop the database server, and my tables are inconsistent, can MySQL still recover from this (by removing the inconsistent rows)? Or is the backup entirely useless?</p>
  
  <p>I've been doing my backups by backing up <code>/var/lib/mysql</code> for a long time... but I've never had to use them. It'd be terrible to find out I couldn't if I had to (after the fact, that is).</p>