Unknown DB

[pdanes]

This is a bit off topic, or off strictly Access, but people here have experience with all sorts of stuff - maybe someone will have an idea.

I've been handed what is supposedly a database, of completely unknown origin. It has a .DB extension, which causes searches on the topic to flood me with references to the .DB thumbnail files associated with Windows folders of images. Despite that, I have managed to locate and test a fairly large number of conversion programs, and not one has made any headway with it. I can open the file with a hex editor and see the data clearly enough, but nothing I have tried yet has been able to unravel the structure. Some respond with messages about unrecognized format, some try, and produce nonsense results, and some just hang.

It's not a large file - 164 KB, so testing is fairly quick, but so far, fruitless. Does anyone have experience with unravelling such things? Once again, I know NOTHING about the software of origin, and I do not see anything in the hex display that I recognize as being from a specific DB product. I've attached a zipped copy, if anyone cares to experiment.

 

[arnelgp]

i think it might be a Paradox database.

 

[pdanes]

i think it might be a Paradox database.

I think you're right. I just found a Paradox convertor and it shows the contents properly. This one is limited to 50 records in the trial version, but at least I know what I have now. Many thanks.

How did you know?

 

[arnelgp]

How did you know?

i also google the extension.

 

[DickyP]

For those who might be interested if you still have access to ACCESS 2003 you can import the file directly - like a lot of features shed as the product is 'enhanced'!

 

[pdanes]

For those who might be interested if you still have access to ACCESS 2003 you can import the file directly - like a lot of features shed as the product is 'enhanced'!

Thanks - I found references to that, but I no longer have any functional machines with 2003. It's a bit frustrating when functionality disappears, but on the other hand, app bloat is already a problem as is, and if the developers left in everything that was ever useful to someone, the product would quickly become impossibly unwieldy. But I found several convertors online, and managed to make one of them work.

 

[DickyP]

Glad you solved your problem - however, I'd put money on the fact that the facility hasn't been removed - just hidden because the developers think it's not needed, but it is harder work to take it out!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Glad you solved your problem - however, I'd put money on the fact that the facility hasn't been removed - just hidden because the developers think it's not needed, but it is harder work to take it out!

Some of those translation facilities were, in fact, .DLL files that were specific to the particular DBs. In the old-style installs, there was a list of file types you could select for possible translation. So the odds are that the hooks are still there but the functional part of the code doesn't have to be.

 

[DickyP]

Some of those translation facilities were, in fact, .DLL files that were specific to the particular DBs. In the old-style installs, there was a list of file types you could select for possible translation. So the odds are that the hooks are still there but the functional part of the code doesn't have to be.

Good thinking - I shall look on my Win 7/2003 PC to see if I can spot a likely DLL:

 

[pdanes]

Some of those translation facilities were, in fact, .DLL files that were specific to the particular DBs. In the old-style installs, there was a list of file types you could select for possible translation. So the odds are that the hooks are still there but the functional part of the code doesn't have to be.

You think adding reference to such a .DLL might enable modern Access to read such stuff? How would you call such functionality?