First Choice DB Software and .FOL files. ? For old school comp users

[JohnnyMCE]

So i am trying to help out a friend who owns a business. He has an old computer running Windows 98 (not se) that has business information from the mid 80's to the mid 90's on it but was retired. He wants to try and recover the information and get it into a usable format. The software that was used was called First Choice which is an old ms-dos database software and it created files with the extension .FOL.

I have been able to retrieve the data off the drive but am unable to get it to run in XP or & via compatibility mode. Using the computer it is currently on really isn't an option because it can't boot into windows because of error messages and when i try to run the app in safe mode the computer blue screens.

The app no longer has any real support and the one app i have found online to convert the .fol file doesn't work either (first2html). I can open the files in word but it's is just a jumble of information. I really want to get the information into excel or at least an access db.

Anybody able to offer any suggestions other than calling it a loss? I am now on a mini mission to see if it is even possible to get these files back and read again.

 

[Nothinman]

Have you tried running the app in DOSBox under XP?

 

[WildHorse]

Never heard of "First Choice."

HOWEVER, SQL is pretty much the universal standard database language.

If you can open First Choice and find some option within it to EXPORT, or to USE the files in basic SQL mode, then try to export those files as sql, or as basic txt, which can then be converted (outside First Choice) to SQL.

cliffs: take the formatted data down to bare SQL, export, use from within some other app (Access, MySQL, whatever)