Why can't I connect to ElevateDB database using DB Manager (so I can export tables)?

Question

I am trying to save user data that has been entered and saved in a proprietary program. The program hasn't been updated for about eight years, the company behind it does no longer exist and no support is available. I have the old program installed and it can be used to open and edit the data but there is no way to export it. From the file names, the data seems to be stored in an ElevateDB database. The following files exists:

• EDBConfig.EDBCfg - Configuration
• EDBConfig.EDBLog
• EDBDatabase.EDBCat - Database catalog

And a couple of files for tables:

• *.EdbTbl - table rows
• *.EDBIdx - table indexes
• *.EDBBlb - blob data

I have downloaded ElevateDb Manager, hoping that I would be able to export the tables from there. But I am not able to connect to the database. I am able to "connect session" but there are no databases listed. After I have connected I can see that some new files have been created:

• EDBConfig.EDBCfg.Old
• EDBConfig.EDBLck
• EDBDatabase.EDBCat.Old
• EDBDatabase.EDBLck.

And EDBConfig.EDBLog size has been increased.

So DbManager does "something" with the database.

I am using the default "Administrator" - "EDBDefault" credentials. I think that if the problem was that the DB was protected with a custom password then DbManager would show a login error.

I also tried to use the ODBC driver with a similar result, it is not possible to select this database.

Answer 1

I found a way to do it:

• Create a new session in DB Manager
• Add a new database
• Close the session
• Replace database files with the actual database but keep the session files
• Connect to the session and now the database is there

I guess the database absolute path is stored in the session files and that was messed up in some way.