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What can I do with a .DBE file?

parispete Page Icon Posted 2009-10-08 4:26 PM
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Being a writer, I adore my fleet of ancient HP Jornadas. At least until I backed up some pocketword files onto my Dell desktop, lost the originals, then found they had magically changed on the Dell into .dbe file extensions.
HP invented the .dbe extension and have kept it so secret that nobody in the world knows anything about it.
So, since this forum is run by HP, is there anyone out there who can point me towards decoding .dbe?
When I say 'decoding', what I really want is some way to convert them back in .pwd, .word ... anything.
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mscdex Page Icon Posted 2009-10-08 4:53 PM
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Unfortunately, I think you are out of luck here, unless you can find someone else with a Jornada with the HP Backup software who is willing to restore the files for you. The only utility close to what you're looking for is STGviewer, but that's for viewing the contents of Activesync backup files, not HP Backup files.

By the way, this forum isn't run by HP.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2009-10-08 5:05 PM
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Nor are any of the Jornadas CE 1.0 devices. (Check the forum section where you posted this.)

HP backup 2.0 is still downloadable from HP. Are you saying you no longer have the Jornadas?
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2009-10-08 5:51 PM
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Moved to CE 2.11 Support

It is downloadable from H/PC:Update as well *pokes CE Geek with a long stick*
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2009-10-08 7:47 PM
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Ow! (Pretty long stick to stretch through eight time zones. )

Still need to know if the original poster still has any Jornadas to do the restore.
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parispete Page Icon Posted 2010-02-17 12:09 AM
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Let me personally thank all those kind souls who offered advice and suggestions.
Yes, I still have my three ancient Jornada 820s and it did occur to me that I could use them to get these wretched .dbe files back into .pwd or Word. But unfortunately no joy.
One other suggestion might work, as someone suggested, which is to use a Jornada running CE1 along with some original HP software to get my files back. Can anyone suggest a path here? It's a dark day indeed when a huge slab or your writing disappears into a black hole. Jornada 820s do have internet capability, but mine are not used this way, so it couldn't have been a virus. Anyway, thanks again to everyone.
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MrSB Page Icon Posted 2010-02-17 3:20 AM
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Just some brainstorming. There seem to be at least three ways to get back the data:
#1 Ask someone who has the same machine to restore the backups and retrieve the needed files for you
#2 Use a WinCE emulator (SDK?) to restore the data on a virtual platform. I happened to see one from here: http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/MsDownload/wince.net/emulator/. A pretty old version (dated 2001), but i haven't tried that and am not sure what it offers.
#3 Some applications which can do selective backup/restore may do, e.g., HPC Vault Deluxe (AnyWare Consulting), FlashBack/Database (Developer One), Database Backup Utility (John Schettino) or HPC DBExplorer (Phatware)
By the way does your backup come from J820?


Edited by MrSB 2010-02-17 3:24 AM
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hmascience Page Icon Posted 2010-02-17 4:26 AM
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parispete - 2009-10-08 11:26 AM

Being a writer, I adore my fleet of ancient HP Jornadas. At least until I backed up some pocketword files onto my Dell desktop, lost the originals, then found they had magically changed on the Dell into .dbe file extensions.
HP invented the .dbe extension and have kept it so secret that nobody in the world knows anything about it.
So, since this forum is run by HP, is there anyone out there who can point me towards decoding .dbe?
When I say 'decoding', what I really want is some way to convert them back in .pwd, .word ... anything.


Have you tried looking at the files with a text editor (Notepad)?

How exactly did you do your backup? Did you use Activesync, copy the files using Windows Explorer, etc?

What version of Windows are you running on your Dell?

I hope that you have made backups of these files even in their currently unreadable state.

Do you have MS Office or Open Office on the Dell?
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SirThoreth Page Icon Posted 2010-02-18 2:30 AM
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I just upgraded my HP 620LX from CE 2.0 to CE 2.11, and found that the new ROM card included a new backup program in the control panel called "HP backup", which can either backup the handheld's PIM databases, or do a full backup. Its internal backups are saved as a .DBE file.

That would indicate right there why nobody but HP has the file specifications for a .DBE file, and why you don't see it anywhere else - it's only used by the backup software HP started supplying with CE 2.11 and later handheld PCs, and that the .DBE files that got transferred over to the Dell aren't backups of the individual Pocket Word files, but a backup of the entire handheld. I'd suspect, then, that you'd need to use the HP backup software on the Jornadas, then, to use these .DBE files to do a full restore.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2010-02-18 4:18 AM
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parispete found one possible solution, but hasn't posted it here. He has posted it on Chris De Herrera's site, though:

http://forums.pocketpcfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=22839
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