Why I still cannot open the fixed DBF file?

There are three possibilities for this situation, as follows:

  1. Your DBF file is created by one application, but you want to open the fixed file in another application, which is not completely compatible with the former and causes problems. The solution is to set the correct version in the combo box beside “Select DBF to be repaired” edit box according to the second application and then start repairing the file again. For example, your DBF file is created by Clipper but you want to open it in dBase III, then you need to set “Version” to “dBase III” and then repair the file again.
  2. Your fixed DBF file is larger than 2GB, the known size limit of the DBF files, so most DBF compatible applications cannot open your file. For example, when using Visual FoxPro to open such a file, you will get “Not a table” error. The solution is to enable “Split file when it is larger than ### MB” option in the “Options” tab and set an appropriate value, which should be less than 2GB, for example, 1800MB, as the maximum file size, and then repair your original DBF file again. When the output fixed file is larger than this limit, DDBFR will create a new split file to accommodate the remaining recovered data. And if the split file reaches the limit again, a second new split file will be created, and so on.
  3. In your fixed DBF file, there are more than 255 fields in the table. Currently most DBF compatible applications don’t support a table with more than 255 fields. For example, when using Visual FoxPro to open such a file, you will get “Not a table” error. The solution is to enable “Split table when there are more than ### fields” option in the “Options” tab and set an appropriate value, for example, 255, as the maximum field count, and then repair your original DBF file again. Thus when DDBFR detects there are more than 255 fields in the table, it will create a new split table to accommodate the remaining fields. And if the remaining fields are still more than 255 fields, a second new split table will be created, and so on.