I have old .DTA Files and .DDF Files… now what?

Question

First time poster here, so be gentle... I am completely stuck, I have been given the task of importing some old.DTA files into tables in SSMS so we can run queries off of them. Being brand new to.dta formats, I did some digging and this is the information I was able to gather up so far:

• .DTA files are data files generated by Btrieve software, which Btrieve then had a name change to PervasiveSQL, which is now owned by Actian
• .DTA files have accompanying system catalog DDF files (data definition files)
• According to this post https://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=364542 I should be able to download the PervasiveSQL demo to be able to explore these DTA files but now I am taken to the Actian website when I click on the links provided.
• We do not have access to the front end software anymore

When I go to the Actian website, its asking me for a username and password to be able to download any trial software.
Before I go signing up for anything, I wanted to check in with you smart people to see if you know of any alternatives to extracting the data out of these legacy.DTA files so I am able to populate it into SQL tables. BTW, I have tried all of the obvious; exploring in notepad, excel, access, using any/all drivers in SSMS for importing data/openrowset and even trying to use an ODBC driver for Btrieve and none of those have given me any success.
I would just LOVE it if there was something obvious I am missing or if anyone has had any success using the Actian software.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You must have an engine that can read the DTA files. If you have the DDFs that match the DTA files and the engine that can read them, you can create an ODBC DSN because the engine includes ODBC drivers. Once you have the ODBC DSN, you can use SSMS, Access, Excel, or any other ODBC tool to access the files.

I would recommend downloading the Zen Workgroup engine v14 Trial for Windows x86 32/64-bit from the Actian website (as of Sept 2019). It is the current version and should be sufficient for a one time (or after purchasing a license, multiple time) import.