Drupal cache_rules error, Error: Tablespace for table abc exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT

I got these queer error today with my site viz:

Error #1. 'cache_rules does not exist in database'
Error #2: 'Error: Tablespace for table abc exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT' in XAMPP using phpMyAdmin & MySQL.

There are various ways to fix these errors. I've listed them below:

Solution 1. Manually create the table using the following SQL query:

DROP TABLE cache_rules ;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `cache_rules` (
  `cid` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' COMMENT 'Primary Key: Unique cache ID.',
  `data` longblob COMMENT 'A collection of data to cache.',
  `expire` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0' COMMENT 'A Unix timestamp indicating when the cache entry should expire, or 0 for never.',
  `created` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0' COMMENT 'A Unix timestamp indicating when the cache entry was created.',
  `serialized` smallint(6) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0' COMMENT 'A flag to indicate whether content is serialized (1) or not (0).',
  PRIMARY KEY (`cid`),
  KEY `expire` (`expire`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COMMENT='Cache table for the rules engine to store configured items.';

Solution 2: If the above solution doesn't work for you and you get error relating to 'tablespace' saying 'Error: Tablespace for table abc exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT' in XAMPP using phpMyAdmin & MySQL.'

There might be either one of the two or both the files 'tablename.ibd' or 'tablename.frm' files left in the location 'C:\xampp\mysql\data\database_name\' Delete those files, in our case it will be 'cache_rules.ibd' or 'cache_rules.frm.' Your problem should be resolved now and you should be able to create/import the 'cache_rules' table.

You might also check the following solution for your 'tablespace' issue: http://tinyurl.com/me69h6x