There can be many reasons for this of course.

• ASCII mode FTP

Many people ftp their datafiles of their server to another machine. Make sure you use binary mode ftp.

In case of ASCII mode you see the following symptoms while blockmapping :

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Datafile C:\ORCL\system01.dbf : start reading blocks

...

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Datafile C:\ORCL\system01.dbf : reading blocks done !

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 0 : 38230 blocks -> 305840Kb -> 54%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 1 : 1474 blocks -> 11792Kb -> 2%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 2 : 1709 blocks -> 13672Kb -> 2%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 3 : 760 blocks -> 6080Kb -> 1%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 4 : 912 blocks -> 7296Kb -> 1%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 5 : 369 blocks -> 2952Kb -> 1%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 6 : 612 blocks -> 4896Kb -> 1%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 7 : 352 blocks -> 2816Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 8 : 242 blocks -> 1936Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 9 : 218 blocks -> 1744Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 10 : 267 blocks -> 2136Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 11 : 147 blocks -> 1176Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 12 : 167 blocks -> 1336Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 13 : 383 blocks -> 3064Kb -> 1%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 14 : 133 blocks -> 1064Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 15 : 109 blocks -> 872Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 16 : 191 blocks -> 1528Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 17 : 159 blocks -> 1272Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 18 : 131 blocks -> 1048Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 19 : 105 blocks -> 840Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 20 : 204 blocks -> 1632Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 21 : 126 blocks -> 1008Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 22 : 124 blocks -> 992Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 23 : 105 blocks -> 840Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 24 : 117 blocks -> 936Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 25 : 154 blocks -> 1232Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 26 : 94 blocks -> 752Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 27 : 96 blocks -> 768Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 28 : 123 blocks -> 984Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 29 : 103 blocks -> 824Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 30 : 215 blocks -> 1720Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 31 : 126 blocks -> 1008Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 32 : 979 blocks -> 7832Kb -> 1%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 33 : 84 blocks -> 672Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 34 : 91 blocks -> 728Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 35 : 68 blocks -> 544Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 36 : 101 blocks -> 808Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 37 : 75 blocks -> 600Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 38 : 73 blocks -> 584Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 39 : 99 blocks -> 792Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 40 : 117 blocks -> 936Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 41 : 117 blocks -> 936Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 42 : 146 blocks -> 1168Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 43 : 116 blocks -> 928Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 44 : 248 blocks -> 1984Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 45 : 218 blocks -> 1744Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 46 : 109 blocks -> 872Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 47 : 328 blocks -> 2624Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 48 : 204 blocks -> 1632Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 49 : 132 blocks -> 1056Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 50 : 129 blocks -> 1032Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 51 : 97 blocks -> 776Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 52 : 102 blocks -> 816Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 53 : 101 blocks -> 808Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 54 : 106 blocks -> 848Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 55 : 96 blocks -> 768Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 56 : 112 blocks -> 896Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 57 : 97 blocks -> 776Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 58 : 70 blocks -> 560Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 59 : 90 blocks -> 720Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 60 : 71 blocks -> 568Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 61 : 111 blocks -> 888Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 62 : 59 blocks -> 472Kb -> 0%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Block type 63 : 17874 blocks -> 142992Kb -> 25%

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Total Blocks scanned = 70677

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Please wait for output stream to finish ...

04-07-2007 13:50 : DUDE> Done !

What’s wrong with this picture ?

Well, normally you shouldn’t have 64 different blocktypes in a datafile. And you should have a reasonable amount of blocktype 0x06 blocks (which is the data you want). So if you see this while blockmapping … you’ve used ASCII mode ftp on your datafiles.

 

• Wrong PLATFORM parameter

If you’re lucky you’ll pick this one up while starting up DUDE as the file numbers resolve to something ridicules.

For example, the first datafile of SYSTEM has normally file# =1 (unless it’s an Oracle7 or migrated Oracle7). If this is not the case then maybe you have your PLATFORM set to a wrong value. Remember, it should be the platform where the database ran on – not where DUDE is currently running on. Now, if you continue blockmapping and then run the ‘dump dictionary’ command, a lot of errors will be spawned.