What the migration covers
- Identify unknown or obsolete engines, versions, data files and companion structures.
- Extract schema, keys, relationships, code lists and application-defined meaning.
- Resolve code pages, dates, decimals, nulls, deleted records and memo/blob content.
- Define the destination around required use, retention and application integration.
- Implement a repeatable conversion that never modifies the preserved originals.
- Reconcile counts, totals, keys, relationships and representative business records.
When metadata is absent, application code, reports, screens and known records may be needed to reconstruct field meaning. A table-shaped export is not a successful migration if those semantics are lost.
Material to provide
| Data estate | Complete file sets, backups, companion files and storage context. |
|---|---|
| Runtime context | Application/engine versions, installers, configuration and a working environment if available. |
| Business evidence | Reports, field definitions, code lists, sample workflows and expected totals. |
| Target requirements | Destination platform, consumers, retention, acceptable downtime and validation owners. |
Recovery from actual overwritten or severely corrupted storage may be partial; limits are reported rather than filled with invented values.
Start with database identification or recovery services when access is the blocker. See binary analysis and the database pillar.