importing sql db

How did you make the backup? I assume you are using phpmyadmin to import it now? Did you go from Unix to windows back to unix and mess up the format of the file (unix and windows use different methods to indicate new lines)

the problem seems to be with

utf8;

what's up with that? the format you pasted got all messed up by the input filter in drupal.. repost the first 30 lines within HTML pre tags and set the input format to "Filtered HTML -- No Markdown"

here is what one of my databases looks like

root@trianglebeats backups]# head -n 30 john_wp-2010-11-06.sql
-- MySQL dump 10.11
--
-- Host: localhost    Database: john_wp
-- ------------------------------------------------------
-- Server version	5.0.45

/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */;
/*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */;
/*!40103 SET @OLD_TIME_ZONE=@@TIME_ZONE */;
/*!40103 SET TIME_ZONE='+00:00' */;
/*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */;
/*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO' */;
/*!40111 SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0 */;

--
-- Table structure for table `wp_comments`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `wp_comments`;
CREATE TABLE `wp_comments` (
  `comment_ID` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `comment_post_ID` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
  `comment_author` tinytext NOT NULL,
  `comment_author_email` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
  `comment_author_url` varchar(200) NOT NULL default '',
  `comment_author_IP` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
  `comment_date` datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
[root@trianglebeats backups]# head -n 30 john_wp-2010-11-06.sql  | grep -i utf8
/*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */;

If you have shell access you can do the following to create a backup and then import it

shell> mysqldump db_name > backup-file.sql

shell> mysql db_name < backup-file.sql

more info on mysqldump:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/mysqldump.html

exported with phpadmin then imported same. All done on a mac.
30 lines

-- phpMyAdmin SQL Dump
-- version 2.11.9.4
-- http://www.phpmyadmin.net
--
-- Host: 173.201.217.5
-- Generation Time: Dec 14, 2010 at 06:37 PM
-- Server version: 5.0.91
-- PHP Version: 5.2.8

SET SQL_MODE="NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO";


/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */;
/*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */;

--
--
--
 utf8;


-- --------------------------------------------------------

--
-- Table structure for table `access`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `access`;

Take a look at the Backup and Migrate module.
This module will allow you to backup your database from the Drupal administration section.
This is a standard module in all my projects

Good luck!