data conversion

stevedsmith · 09-10-2004, 11:25 AM

A carpet cleaning business owner has an old desktop running Win 95 that he uses to run his business. He wants/needs to replace the machine with a newer one. He has customer data on the old machine in a program called Carpet Cleaning, which was developed by Marathon Data Systems. This data is important to him, and as such, he needs to be able to port the data to the new system on the new machine. He hasn't yet decided what software to use on the new machine, to which the customer data will be ported. Marathon says they would port the data for free if the business owner would use their newest software. But, the business owner says he does not want to use any product from Marathon Data Systems.

So, how can this data be converted into a format that can be loaded into another program? Can a routine be written to extract the data? We think the data is in a FoxPro database.

Any help is welcome.

stretch001 · 09-10-2004, 11:56 AM

you'll have to be a bit more specific, what kind of data is it?, database?

you may have trouble moving data from a win16 to a win32 machine, your better off taking the marathon option, you need help from somone who knows what they are doing

Chevy · 09-11-2004, 09:18 PM

If the data is in a FoxPro database, then you should be able to bring it into Access.

Another option is to see if you can export from within the program to a CSV file or other text format.

ricer333 · 09-17-2004, 09:38 AM

I was going to suggest that, if he can export the data into a CSV file than any database software will be able to import it. Seeing that most of those business type software programs run some sort of database underneath, than it is a reasonable assumption that any software he buys will be able to read the CSV file and import it accordingly.

~matt

stevedsmith · 09-18-2004, 01:11 PM

The data is in the format that the current program writes it... which we think is a FoxPro database, but not sure.

At this point, I'm working on re-installing the hard drive in a newer machine and allowing the current application to continue running to buy time to figure out how to extract the data from the current program.

The current program does not have an export function. So, I'm faced with installing FoxPro on the new machine (after the drive is re-installed) then trying to access the data with FoxPro and write the data to a text file, which then could be imported to another program, like QuickBooks or some other business software. What do you think?

Steve

09-10-2004, 11:25 AM	#1 (permalink)
stevedsmith Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP Home	data conversion A carpet cleaning business owner has an old desktop running Win 95 that he uses to run his business. He wants/needs to replace the machine with a newer one. He has customer data on the old machine in a program called Carpet Cleaning, which was developed by Marathon Data Systems. This data is important to him, and as such, he needs to be able to port the data to the new system on the new machine. He hasn't yet decided what software to use on the new machine, to which the customer data will be ported. Marathon says they would port the data for free if the business owner would use their newest software. But, the business owner says he does not want to use any product from Marathon Data Systems. So, how can this data be converted into a format that can be loaded into another program? Can a routine be written to extract the data? We think the data is in a FoxPro database. Any help is welcome.

09-10-2004, 11:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
stretch001 Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 172 OS: suse9.1,xp,2k,2k server,2003 server,redhat7	you'll have to be a bit more specific, what kind of data is it?, database? you may have trouble moving data from a win16 to a win32 machine, your better off taking the marathon option, you need help from somone who knows what they are doing __________________ If you can keep your head while others around you loose theirs, it's quite possible you havn't grasped the enourmity of the situation

09-11-2004, 09:18 PM	#3 (permalink)
Chevy Semi-Retired Manager, Microsoft Support Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Notlob Posts: 5,171 OS: Vista Ultimate My System	If the data is in a FoxPro database, then you should be able to bring it into Access. Another option is to see if you can export from within the program to a CSV file or other text format. __________________ “My philosophy, like color television, is all there in black and white” -M. Python

09-17-2004, 09:38 AM	#4 (permalink)
ricer333 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 292 OS: WinXP Pro SP2	I was going to suggest that, if he can export the data into a CSV file than any database software will be able to import it. Seeing that most of those business type software programs run some sort of database underneath, than it is a reasonable assumption that any software he buys will be able to read the CSV file and import it accordingly. ~matt

09-18-2004, 01:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
stevedsmith Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP Home	The data is in the format that the current program writes it... which we think is a FoxPro database, but not sure. At this point, I'm working on re-installing the hard drive in a newer machine and allowing the current application to continue running to buy time to figure out how to extract the data from the current program. The current program does not have an export function. So, I'm faced with installing FoxPro on the new machine (after the drive is re-installed) then trying to access the data with FoxPro and write the data to a text file, which then could be imported to another program, like QuickBooks or some other business software. What do you think? Steve