Inventory the BDE estate
- Export aliases, driver settings, NET DIR and language/locale configuration.
- Group Paradox or dBase tables with indexes, memo files and validity metadata.
- Identify SQL aliases and native/client libraries.
- Find every application, report and batch process using the same aliases.
- Record multi-user locking, private directories and backup procedures.
Data migration risks
| Area | What must be tested |
|---|---|
| Keys and autoincrement | Stable identifiers, generated-value behavior and references |
| Types and nulls | Empty string/null distinctions, decimals, dates and booleans |
| Indexes and ordering | Case sensitivity, locale and application lookup expectations |
| Memo/blob fields | Companion-file completeness and binary fidelity |
| Deleted/damaged records | Whether extraction includes or excludes recoverable remnants |
Choose a transition model
For archival extraction, document schema and export to transparent formats. For continued application use, a compatibility or data-access change may be needed. For a new SQL backend, stage and reconcile data before changing clients. Do not switch all users without rollback and parallel validation.
The application-focused route is Delphi BDE migration. Damaged tables belong in database recovery. Use MDB recovery only for Access/Jet files—not as a generic BDE solution. The database hub covers preservation versus migration.
Provide
Complete data directories, BDE configuration export, applications using each alias, user/concurrency model, expected totals and the intended target database.