If I understand correctly, Larry's suggestion will export the data to text so I can then import it on a, say, Unix machine and get a 'proper' database file. It's a suitable workaround in a pinch. However, if practical (and that's a big if) I'd like to fix the RISC OS version so that its binary files conform to the spec in the first place. That's what I'm wondering about the practicality of.