Import posts from corrupted MySQL into WP2

(I know squat about MySQL, so if this has a blazingly obvious answer, please be kind…)

I had a WP1.5.2 install with about 500 posts, another 500 or so comments. Somewhere in all my updating, play with plugins, etc. the MySQL DB went horribly wrong. I would get random SQL errors when posting, for instance. I backed the whole thing up, upgraded to WP2.0, and MySQL went really ugly on me. For instance, when I go to update, edit, or delete a Page, I get a pop-up with about 30 SQL errors. I also can’t get any of those pages to resolve using their slugs (e.g. mysite.com/about only returns a 500 error).

So I did a clean install of 2.0, new instance of the MySQL DB, all good and clean. But I need to import my posts, comments, and categories. I have hunted endlessly for a usable export to MT or related function (figuring I could then import back to WP), but the limited hacks out there don’t seem to work.

So given something is wrong with my old MySQL DB, I don’t just want to point to it with the new install. How can I pull in all that data?

Poked around in PhpMyAdmin with the ‘SQL’ tab, but being 100% ignorant I can’t seem to make this work.

Any pointers at all would be MUCH appreciated!