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(mysql.info)Windows symbolic links

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Splitting Data Across Different Disks on Windows
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Beginning with MySQL Version 3.23.16, the `mysqld-max' and
`mysql-max-nt' servers in the MySQL distribution are compiled with the
`-DUSE_SYMDIR' option.  This allows you to put a database on different
disk by adding a symbolic link to it (in a manner similar to the way
that symbolic links work on Unix).

On Windows, you make a symbolic link to a database by creating a file
that contains the path to the destination directory and saving this in
the `mysql_data' directory under the filename `database.sym'.  Note
that the symbolic link will be used only if the directory
`mysql_data_dir\database' doesn't exist.

For example, if the MySQL data directory is `C:\mysql\data' and you
want to have database `foo' located at `D:\data\foo', you should create
the file `C:\mysql\data\foo.sym' that contains the text `D:\data\foo\'.
After that, all tables created in the database `foo' will be created
in `D:\data\foo'.

Note that because of the speed penalty you get when opening every table,
we have not enabled this by default even if you have compiled MySQL
with support for this. To enable symlinks you should put in your
`my.cnf' or `my.ini' file the following entry:

     [mysqld]
     use-symbolic-links

In MySQL 4.0 we will enable symlinks by default. Then you should
instead use the `skip-symlink' option if you want to disable this.