>Unfortunately the BAK and TBK files are only as good as the last structure change (or something like that); not each time it's opened.
>
>Any other ideas? My friend will have to retype for hours from old reports if there's not...

Yes, you're right. The BAK/TBK files are created when you use MODIFY STRUCTURE not when a PACK is done.

However, PACK does make a copy of the file without the deleted records and copies the temporary file back over the original one. If you have some type of deleted file recover utility then you may be able to get the previous version.

If you don't already have one then your friend has a lot of work in the near future. I believe www.winternals.com offers an NT utility for this. If running on a Novell server, you might be able to get the files using Salvage (this was available in previous versions of Novell; not sure about 5.X).

HTH.