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I have what seems to be very old firebird files available and was asked to get data out of them. I have run various versions of firebird 32/64bits 2.5/3.0/embeded on Windows 10x64. Each time, using ISQL/FlameRobin/DBeaver, I get the error

Not a valid database

Investigating further, I used gstat -h (from F2.5x64) and I got

Wrong ODS version, expected 11, encountered 8224

which makes me think those files are very old or even from Interbase maybe. I followed this russian link http://www.ibase.ru/prevver/ which gives pretty good details about ODS versions, but I can't find out how to open my files.

I am looking for very old versions of firebird to download, or some tool which would tell me which version to use. I also tried FBConvert which was unable to open the file.

Any help here is appreciated ! Thx.

jhfelectric
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1 Answers1

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Firebird versions up to 2.5 can open databases of previous Firebird versions and of Interbase 6.0, but not newer or older Interbase databases. Firebird 3 can only open Firebird ODS 12.

There might be some problems with databases created on different platforms (eg different OS, endianness, bitness, etc).

However it is likely that the database is not a Firebird database at all, maybe it is a gbak backup file, or maybe it is a totally different database system. I don't think it is a more recent Interbase database, because then gstat would have shown the confusing message "Wrong ODS version, expected 11, encountered 11" (or similar), because the Firebird ODS uses a bit mask to be able to discern itself from Interbase ODS versions.

If whoever provided you with the database file can access the database on his system and is sure it is a Firebird database, you will need to ask them to create a backup with gbak instead, make sure it is a transportable backup (it is the default though).

Mark Rotteveel
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  • Thank you for pointing out that it could be a file of a different type. Not a Firebird database as it seems. – jhfelectric Jan 23 '17 at 04:07
  • If your DB come from a commercial software, there are vendors that even change a bit FB format in order to protect it. If not, try first to backup your DB with an ancient FB/IB version on original platform and then restore it on 2.5 or 3.0. FB databases are os/architecture dependent and just a backup/restore can move them from one medium to another. – Marcodor Jan 23 '17 at 10:58
  • Two eyars ago I saw a client that brought her laptop for our soft upgrade and she still run ODS 9 ( IB5 format ) DB while running FB... 1.5 or 2.0 I don't remember exactly. – Arioch 'The Jan 24 '17 at 11:18
  • there are tools like TrID and Magic that might be of some use http://forensicswiki.org/wiki/File_Format_Identification * * * * Or they could give you the database from a faulty hard drive, that actually no more have data but only a garbage. * * * * Also Interbase and FB 0.9 had that 2GB ( or maybe on NTFS: 4GB) wrap-up bug, crashing page zero with data pages. So i'd try tools like IBAid/IBSurgeon to scan all the files, to see that maybe they would find valid data pages after invalid statistics/header page – Arioch 'The Jan 24 '17 at 11:20
  • @Arioch'The yes, it could be that 1.x could still open ODS 9, but even then, the error would show ODS 9. – Mark Rotteveel Jan 24 '17 at 15:41
  • Personally due to " was asked to get data out of them " I consider a wrap-up header pages damage, so he should contact companies like IB Surgeon and give them those DB and their older not-yet-damaged backups, just my speculation – Arioch 'The Jan 25 '17 at 08:48