>>You can check the first byte of the table's header - it was probably upgraded to some newer version that FPD doesn't understand. It should be the same as in the tables FPD can open. There was a message today (Sergey, I presume) where this was mentioned, and it's also documented somewhere in the VFP distribution, look for .frx files.
>>
>>Quick fix: open the table in VFP9, and copy to ... type fox2x - the new copy should be readable by FPD.
>
>1. How can you open VFP9 table in Fox2.6 without having VFP installed?

You can have an utility which would just open any table and copy it out type fox2x - you need the runtimes, of course.

>2. How can you tell table version (which VFP version is was created from) based on a file only?

There's some information in the header. Not sure how precise it is, though, as it's a single byte and I'm not sure it changed since VFP3. I remember it was documented somewhere (I read it in printed form with 2.6 manuals), but I couldn't find it in home()\tools\filespec.