If you are running WampServer on your local machine, it can be a bit tricky to restore a MySQL database. You need to do it from the Windows command line (DOS prompt), rather then the MySQL console command line. The actual MySQL restore command is slightly different to normal and you need to make sure you are in the right directory first.

Here are the steps (using WampServer 2.0):

1. Go to the Windows command line by going to Start -> Run and typing in cmd.
2. You need to change directory to the MySQL bin directory. On my version, the directory is c:\wamp\bin\mysql\mysql4.1.22\bin. Therefore, the command to change to this directory is:
   cd wamp\bin\mysql\mysql4.1.22\bin
3. Put the MySQL dump (SQL file) into the above directory
4. Create the new database in phpmyAdmin (or on the command line)
5. The actual restore command is slightly different to normal. The command is:
   mysql.exe -u root -p databasename < filename.sql
   Note that is says mysql.exe rather than the normal mysql.
6. When it asks you for a password, just hit enter. There is no password assocated with the database that you created (unless you prefer to have one. But as it is local, there is no need)
7. That's it!