How to open encrypted .dat file created from Btrieve 6.15

Question

We are facing issues in opening a .dat file created many years ago. How to open encrypted .dat file created from Btrieve 6.15?

Answer 1

You need a Btrieve / Pervasive / Actian database engine to open a Btrieve file. You can't open it in Notepad / Notepad ++ / any other editor. Btrieve does not store field metadata so the record returned by the Btrieve engine is just a collection of bytes for the developer to interpret.
There are several possibilities for reading the file:
The best option would be to use the application that created the file to export the data.
If that isn't possible and you have a set of DDFs (FILE.DDF, FIELD.DDF, INDEX.DDF) that accurately describe the data (.DAT) file, you can use ODBC to read the data. You will still need the database engine to read the file.
If you don't have DDFs but know the record layout of the table, you can create DDF files and table reference using CREATE TABLE SQL statements or the DDF Builder (available in recent versions of the PSQL / Zen Database engine. You can also create (or have created) a program that uses the Btrieve API to read the data.
If you don't have the record structure, you might be able to figure it out using a DDF Builder tool.