I got a copy of some backup files recently and needed to restore them. However, I don’t have SQL Backup installed on all my instances. It’s not a big deal to install it, but since this is a one-off, I decided to just decompress the files.

The documentation for SQL Backup Pro notes that you will have the file converter installed with your SQL Backup installation. The path given is the default, but if you’re like me, you need to track down the actual path. Mine is actually on my e: drive, which means I need to use the full path to call the program.

The converter is a command line tool, so I need to open a command prompt and then type the path to the file. I could to this many ways, but I started by going to the folder with my .sqb files. I then typed this:

This actually worked, but it then put the decrompressed files in the folder with the SQL Backup utility. I then adjusted the command to this:

“E:\Program Files\Red Gate\SQL Backup 7″\sqbconverter FULL_
INS1_SQLServerCentral_20160210_000500.sqb H:\SQL Server\Backup\sqlservercentral_20160209.bak MyPassword
This command actually is seen in the help if you type sqbconverter with no parameters. The format is the .exe, then the input file (the .sqb), the output file (the .bak) and the password.

The utility gives you the progress as the files are decompressed.

Depending on the threads used, you’ll end up with multiple files. In my case, 7 files.

Now I can restore each of these as a normal, striped backup.

Filed under: Blog Tagged: Backup/Recovery, Redgate, SQL Backup Pro, sql server, syndicated