I was wondering if it was possible to do a backup of a Firebird
database and create a backup which can be connected to without
requiring a restore?

I am currently able to do a backup using the services components (in
Delphi 7), but (of course) I can't use the created backup file.

The reason I want to do this is because I really want to do a backup
but delete a whole bunch of records prior to getting my final backup
file. Do the deletion on the backup but keep them in the existing
database being used by the application.

Any help or tips would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Diego