The DBF files are primarily used in dBase II databases and all its succeeding versions, including dBase III, dBase III+, and dBase IV. DBF file A DBF file contains header and data. Header determines the file structure and contains other information pertaining to the table. This file is used by many other applications to store structured data. Sometimes, you may require exporting the file contents to a different location or some other application like MS Outlook. This operation may fail and lead to various errors. These errors are mainly encountered due to DBF file corruption. As a consequence, you may lose all the vital data in your DBF File. To overcome the problem, you need to go for DBF recovery through a reliable third-party utility.
For instance, when you try to import a DBF file in MS Outlook application, you may come across the following error message:
An error has occurred in the dBase translator while getting the contents of a file system.
The file "\.dbf" was not recognized. The dBase translator was unable to recognize this file. It could be the wrong file, a version of the file type which is not supported by this translator, or the file might be corrupt.
Cause:
One of the causes of this problem is due to the bugs in the current version of MS FoxPro/dBase.
The error occurred because the value representing year in the 'last modified date' field of the file is greater than 99. This value is incorrectly read by the dBase translator. This mainly happens because the Microsoft Office programs continue counting beyond 99, while the Microsoft FoxPro and dBase applications reset to zero after this number.
The above error could also be caused by dBase database corruption. Corruption may lead to DBF file inaccessibility and data loss. You may use a backup to restore all the lost or inaccessible data. However, if the backup is missing, you should try to repair corrupt DBF file. First, have a look at the below mentioned resolution steps.
Resolution:
These steps may help you fix the problem-
Apply hotfix: Try to get the Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a). Run this hotfix to resolve the problem.
Use different file format: Try to import the file to some other application like MS Excel (XLS), MS Access (MDB), etc.
If the problem still persists, you should take help of an efficient
DBF repair tool. These software easily repair and recover all the damaged DBF file components, such as tables, indexes, column data types etc.
Stellar Phoenix DBF Recovery is an advanced utility that repairs corrupt DBF files created in dBase and MS Visual FoxPro. The software supports dBase III-V and MS Visual FoxPro 6.0-9.0versions. Moreover, it is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.
