Can I run my old dbase program on a new PC?

Q

For a little over 10 years from the mid 1980s, I did all my personal accounting on a finance suite I’d created myself in dbase III, on an Osborne computer. This carried on to dbase III Plus, becoming ever more useful and complex, until I eventually switched to Quicken. I never converted the legacy files, because I didn’t need them often and because they were so big. When I did, I could run DOS on an old machine and get whatever I wanted.

That old PC is now defunct and I wish there was some other way of getting what I need. My solution is using Excel to pick up the raw data from the .dbf files, but it is a tedious process. Is there a way to run or simulate my old dbase suite, or is there a current database program that will allow me to open them intact? Either option must be cheap! Guy Barker

A

It sounds like you still have your original dbase III Plus installation disks and files. If so then one straightforward (and free) option would be to install a DOS emulator — and then install dbase III Plus inside this. In this way, you could open and use your .dbf files exactly as you used to, albeit from within a window on your current Windows PC.

DOSBOX is a popular DOS emulator, and a free download from www.snipca. com/24662. In order to install and run your dbase III Plus program inside DOSBOX you’ll need to first copy the program (or installation) files to your PC’S hard drive, and then type a command in DOSBOX to ‘mount’ the relevant folder.

For example, use File Explorer to create a folder called ‘dbase’ on drive C, and copy everything into here. Now launch DOSBOX and, at the command prompt, type mount c c:\dbase and press Enter. Next, type c: and press Enter. DOSBOX’S command prompt will show ‘C:\>’, but it’s actually ‘pointing’ at the dbase folder on your hard drive. Either type the dbase III Plus setup command (such as setup. exe) or launch it by entering the name of the program’s executable file (most likely dbase.exe). You can now use and navigate dbase just as you did on your old PC.