The CONVERT command

Use the CONVERT command with the SQL Backup -SQL parameter to convert SQL Backup files (.sqb) to Microsoft Tape Format (MTF) files (.bak). You can use the native SQL Server RESTORE command to restore MTF files.

Alternatively, you can use the SQL Backup File Converter (either from the command line, or using the GUI application). This application can also convert SQL Backup v6 files to SQL Backup v5 files; both file types have extension .sqb. See SQL Backup File Converter for more information.

Note that if you convert a backup file that has been stored across a number of files (using FILECOUNT as detailed in The BACKUP command), an individual .bak file is created for each file. For example, if backup file BackUpA.sqb was split into three files, the following files are created when you convert the backup:

BackUpA_01.bak

BackUpA_02.bak

BackUpA_03.bak

You can then restore the MTF (.bak) format backups as a group of backup files.

The CONVERT command

Additional arguments and extended syntax are highlighted.

Syntax

CONVERT { 'physical_backup_device_name' } ] TO { 'physical_file_name' }
[ WITH
    [ [ , ] MAXDATABLOCK = { 65536 | 131072 | ... | 2097152 } ]
    [ [ , ] PASSWORD = { 'password' } ]
    [ [ , ] SINGLERESULTSET ]
]

Arguments

MAXDATABLOCK

Specifies the maximum size of data blocks to be used when SQL Backup stores backup data. Valid values are integers in multiples of 65536, up to a maximum value of 2097152. For example:

    MAXDATABLOCK = 655360

PASSWORD

Specifies the password to be used with encrypted backup files.

SINGLERESULTSET

Specifies that the results returned by the CONVERT command should be limited to just one result set. This may be useful if you want to manipulate results using a Transact-SQL script. Such scripts can only manipulate results when a single result set is returned. The CONVERT command will return two result sets by default unless you specify the SINGLERESULTSET keyword.

Example

SQLBackupC -SQL "CONVERT 'C:\Backups\pubs.sqb' TO 'C:\Backups\pubs.bak' "