A file that has been saved as BAK extension is said to be a backup file of an application mainly used to store a copy of files for backup purposes. Most of the BAK files present in a computer system are automatically generated by a program into the system folders. Such BAK files can hold onto anything, starting from the bookmarks of a web browser to files of a software application that needs to be periodically backed up. When an application is said to be saving the recently made changes to the data stored in the computer, it does rename the older file extension BAK with a new one, so that even if the application crashes in one way or another, the lost data can be recollected. This way, minimal data loss can be guaranteed in the first place.
Most of the .bak files that are created and stored automatically are database backups representing the SQL Server databases; yet, other programs such as Word and Excel can also create such backup files. There is no kind of standard program available to import or extract information directly from files that are saved with BAK extension. Restoring the .bak file is the only way to view and edit the content that is backed up through a software application. If you have XLS extension file then you need to use the excel application to open XLS file.
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Steps to Open .bak file
Aug 07, 2019 A BAK file is a backup of another document or file, commonly created automatically by software programs or by the operating system. It typically contains a copy of the original file and can be restored to the original by replacing the.bak extension with the original extension. Copy and save the.bak file to another secure device. Open File Explorer View Options uncheck 'Hide Extensions for Known File Types' and click 'OK'. Open the device with copied SQL database backup.bak file and right-click on it. Select 'Rename' change the '.bak' file extension into '.xls' or '.xlsx'.
As discussed above, the .bak files can either be automatically or manually created by multiple programs and if you have no clue about the file's history, then you need to follow few steps that can help in rightly extracting the information present within the backed up file.
If at all you do know anything regarding the file's history related to the program from which it has been backed up and exported form, then you need to open up the desired program and search for restoring options through them.
METHOD 1
Possible ways to open SQL saved BAK file
The following is a set of instructions that you need to follow to open the BAK file that is stored as a backup from SQL Server. To access the information stored as a backup file, it must be restored to its original state. If you try to open .bak saved file using Notepad like text editors, then you can only end up witnesses a list of messed up characters.
Check sql server port. Note: Turn off spelling checking and automatic grammar checking option is applicable for the whole document. It is not possible to apply this setting on a single paragraph, as this option is not available.To turn off automatic spelling checking and automatic grammar checking, follow the given steps, as appropriate for your situation:1.Click the File tab, and then click Options.2.Click Proofing. Have them run spell check to identify the misspelled words. Gather up the bad records and create update statements from the db. Don't offshore applications where English spelling is important. EDIT: I should have pointed out, you might use the spell check to identify the issues but you want human eyes on the actual data as well as suggested fixes. Aug 11, 2014 We run SharePoint on Windows 2012 which comes with IE11 with the spell checker built in. When adding users to SharePoint using that browser, some user names cannot be resolved as the spell check can't resolve them.
- Open up SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio).
- From the database that you are about to restore BAK file, right-click upon it and then navigate to Tasks and then click Restore and then Database, as mentioned below.
- Select ‘From Device' option and then click on it to browse and load the .bak file from the destined folder location.
- A ‘Specify Backup' window shall pop-up, in which you need to click upon the ‘Add' button to choose the previously saved file extension BAK.
- The next screen will hold on the directory of the local drive that is present in your computer system. Navigate to the folder that has the .bak file and select it to start with the restoring process.
- Once the file has been selected, click upon the ‘OK' button and then again press the ‘OK' button to get back to the initial screen.
- Make sure to tick upon both ‘empty- Transaction Log Backup' and ‘Full Database Backup' to successfully restore the file.
- Once both these options are selected, press upon the ‘OK' button and wait until the below-mentioned window pops up.
Now all the backed-up databases are online and you can easily access them at your convenience.
METHOD 2
Renaming the extension:
If you do know the appropriate extension of the program that has created the .bak file, then it can be restored by renaming them to its original extension format. For example, if you are looking forward to opening the BAK file that has been identified as a Word document, then then you must remove the bak extension and rename it using DOC extension.
If the desired file name has been saved as 'mydocument.bak', then you need to change the file type by renaming it to 'mydocument.doc'. After renaming it, you can directly open the file using Microsoft Word and access the saved content. The same process applies for .bak files that are saved as a backup file of a Notepad document. You need to rename the .bak file extension as .txt to view the data saved in them.
METHOD 3
Finding the original file format of a backed-up .bak file:
If you are clueless about a .bak file present in your laptop or personal computer, and not able to figure out the exact program that created them, then you need to open it as a text document using text converter software like Best Free Text Editors. By trying to open the BAK file through such text editors, you can find the exact program that has backed up the data in the first instance. All you need to do is to read through the loaded text file and search for the extensions that can indicate the original file extension in one way or another.
For example, if at all the file has been named 'file.bak' and said to be found in an odd folder in your hard drive, then you need to open it up using text editor software at first. The below-mentioned image showcases an opened .bak file using Notepad++ text editor. You can witness letters like 'ID3' present within the loaded file. If you tend to search online, then you can understand and be clear that it is a metadata container that is widely used in MP3 file formats. Now, all you need to do is to rename the 'file.bak' to 'file.mp3' to immediately restore and access the BAK file.
Similarly, if at all the BAK opened in a text editor shows various a bunch of tables or text like elements, then you need to realize that the original file format is said to be CSV. Follow the same renaming process by adding .csv in the place of .bak and then open it using Microsoft Excel to get to know more about the saved data files.
In this article, we will show how to convert SQL .bak file to MDF. We will show different ways to do it. The article will also cover what to do if the bak file is corrupt, how to restore it using SQL database toolkit and get the .mdf file.
Introduction
First of all, we will explain what is the bak extension and the .mdf extension and finally, we will show how to convert them.
What is a file with .bak extension?
In SQL Server, the .bak extension is used to store the backup. You could use any extension, but it is a good practice to use the bak file. A SQL Server backup can be restored and when it is restored, it extracts the .mdf file and the log file. A backup file can have 1 or multiple data files and transaction log files.
How to backup the database into a .bak file
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In order to backup your database to a bak, in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) select the database and go to Tasks>Back Up:
By default, the backup type is full. You can specify the destination and the backup name:
How to convert the bak to MDF
In order to restore your bak file to MDF file(s) and transaction files (LDF), right-click the database node and select Restore Database:
If you select the device, you can choose your .bak file to restore. Usually, the backup files are stored in a path like this one:
C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL14.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLBackupyourfile.bak
If you go to the Files page, you can set the path for the MDF and ldf files:
When youpress restore, you will be able to restore the information.
Note that there are several types of backups. A full backup will contain all the information, whereas a differential backup will backup only the differences between the last backup and the changes of the current database. A differential backup takes less space because it does not store all the information.
Bak File App
The restoration is not exactly converting a bak file into MDF file, basically, it is extracting the information from the bak file to get the MDF file and the transaction log files also. Finally, for backup strategies, refer to this link.
What is an MDF
MDF is a SQL Server database extension for the main data files. The database is stored in physical files that can be an MDF file and NDF files. A database can have 1 MDF file and 0 or multiple NDF files.
The NDF files are secondary files that can be used to distribute the information to reduce the backup time or restoration time.
You can see where your MDF file is by right-clicking the database in SSMS and selecting properties:
In the files page, you can see the path of your files including the MDF and LDF.
How to convert bak file to MDF if the bak file is corrupt
If your backup is corrupt, you cannot restore the information or you may not be able to restore all the information required. You can use the Stellar Toolkit for MS SQL Server. There are 3 applications in the Toolkit, select the Extract from MS SQL Backup. This application is used to restore a SQL Server backup if it is corrupt.
Then you need to select the .bak file and press the Scan button:
You can select the backup set:
You will need to select your SQL Server version. The version 2016 is compatible with SQL Server 2017.
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You can check the preview of database objects. If everything is fine, you will be able to see the success message:
Free Bak File Viewer Download
The software will restore the database backup. You can restore the bak file into SQL Server using the software specified.
If the desired file name has been saved as 'mydocument.bak', then you need to change the file type by renaming it to 'mydocument.doc'. After renaming it, you can directly open the file using Microsoft Word and access the saved content. The same process applies for .bak files that are saved as a backup file of a Notepad document. You need to rename the .bak file extension as .txt to view the data saved in them.
METHOD 3
Finding the original file format of a backed-up .bak file:
If you are clueless about a .bak file present in your laptop or personal computer, and not able to figure out the exact program that created them, then you need to open it as a text document using text converter software like Best Free Text Editors. By trying to open the BAK file through such text editors, you can find the exact program that has backed up the data in the first instance. All you need to do is to read through the loaded text file and search for the extensions that can indicate the original file extension in one way or another.
For example, if at all the file has been named 'file.bak' and said to be found in an odd folder in your hard drive, then you need to open it up using text editor software at first. The below-mentioned image showcases an opened .bak file using Notepad++ text editor. You can witness letters like 'ID3' present within the loaded file. If you tend to search online, then you can understand and be clear that it is a metadata container that is widely used in MP3 file formats. Now, all you need to do is to rename the 'file.bak' to 'file.mp3' to immediately restore and access the BAK file.
Similarly, if at all the BAK opened in a text editor shows various a bunch of tables or text like elements, then you need to realize that the original file format is said to be CSV. Follow the same renaming process by adding .csv in the place of .bak and then open it using Microsoft Excel to get to know more about the saved data files.
In this article, we will show how to convert SQL .bak file to MDF. We will show different ways to do it. The article will also cover what to do if the bak file is corrupt, how to restore it using SQL database toolkit and get the .mdf file.
Introduction
First of all, we will explain what is the bak extension and the .mdf extension and finally, we will show how to convert them.
What is a file with .bak extension?
In SQL Server, the .bak extension is used to store the backup. You could use any extension, but it is a good practice to use the bak file. A SQL Server backup can be restored and when it is restored, it extracts the .mdf file and the log file. A backup file can have 1 or multiple data files and transaction log files.
How to backup the database into a .bak file
Bak File Open software, free download For Pc
In order to backup your database to a bak, in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) select the database and go to Tasks>Back Up:
By default, the backup type is full. You can specify the destination and the backup name:
How to convert the bak to MDF
In order to restore your bak file to MDF file(s) and transaction files (LDF), right-click the database node and select Restore Database:
If you select the device, you can choose your .bak file to restore. Usually, the backup files are stored in a path like this one:
C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL14.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLBackupyourfile.bak
If you go to the Files page, you can set the path for the MDF and ldf files:
When youpress restore, you will be able to restore the information.
Note that there are several types of backups. A full backup will contain all the information, whereas a differential backup will backup only the differences between the last backup and the changes of the current database. A differential backup takes less space because it does not store all the information.
Bak File App
The restoration is not exactly converting a bak file into MDF file, basically, it is extracting the information from the bak file to get the MDF file and the transaction log files also. Finally, for backup strategies, refer to this link.
What is an MDF
MDF is a SQL Server database extension for the main data files. The database is stored in physical files that can be an MDF file and NDF files. A database can have 1 MDF file and 0 or multiple NDF files.
The NDF files are secondary files that can be used to distribute the information to reduce the backup time or restoration time.
You can see where your MDF file is by right-clicking the database in SSMS and selecting properties:
In the files page, you can see the path of your files including the MDF and LDF.
How to convert bak file to MDF if the bak file is corrupt
If your backup is corrupt, you cannot restore the information or you may not be able to restore all the information required. You can use the Stellar Toolkit for MS SQL Server. There are 3 applications in the Toolkit, select the Extract from MS SQL Backup. This application is used to restore a SQL Server backup if it is corrupt.
Then you need to select the .bak file and press the Scan button:
You can select the backup set:
You will need to select your SQL Server version. The version 2016 is compatible with SQL Server 2017.
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You can check the preview of database objects. If everything is fine, you will be able to see the success message:
Free Bak File Viewer Download
The software will restore the database backup. You can restore the bak file into SQL Server using the software specified.
Once restored, it can be converted to an MDF file when the data is restored.
Conclusion
The bak file is a compressed file that includes the main data file, transaction log files and secondary files (if any). When a file is restored, the backup file is converted to a database composed in an MDF file, transaction logs and sometimes a secondary file with ndf extension. You can use the Stellar Toolkit for MS SQL to get the MDF file from the bak file. The Toolkit can repair not only SQL Server backups, but also includes tools to restore MDF files or recover passwords.