Diego Barros wrote:

> 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?

You can create a metadata-only backup&restore (which usually takes under a
minute), and then pump the data to new database using some datapump tool like
FBCopy.

> 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.

With FBCopy, you can use WHERE clause for each table, so the records you don't
need won't be copied at all, and you don't have to delete anything. Just copy
exactly what you need.

http://fbexport.sourceforge.net/fbcopy.html

HTH

--
Milan Babuskov
http://www.flamerobin.org