How can I read / open the backup files on my computer?

[Forum-Pi]

Hello. I did the upgrade to 5.3.3 and all went well (the forum is fine and running). However I noticed that in the polls some text is missing. I have my latest backup on my computer and would really like to find this text. Somehow I need to open / read the files in my backup. I do not need to use this backup for my forum, but I need to find some posts in there (to find some text in it) and copy it.

Is there a way to do it? How can I read the backup files on my computer? Thank you.

[Mark.B]

A *.sql file can theoretically be opened in Notepad or a decent text editor like Notepad++.
However, all you'll see is a huge set of MySQL commands, plus in most cases the file will be far to large to be opened like that and it will just crash.

The only viable way to do what you want is to set up a private mirror of your site, import the backup database to a new blank database on your server, and point the config file for the mirror site to that. You will also need to use tools.php to change the URL settings to match the mirror site's URL, or else the forum won't load properly.
You can do this without breaching your vB license as long as the site is not public - normally you would password protect the directory to achieve this (simply closing the forum isn't sufficient).

[Forum-Pi]

Thank you for your reply, Mark.B. Actually, I was suspecting something like this, but still had a hope that there is an "easy solution" out there...