I am getting an error 603 restoring a database ever since I applied SP5 to SQL 6.5?

A. This is a nasty bug that slipped through the cracks in SP5 testing/beta's. It is caused when someone runs sp_sysbackuphistory - the most common way to do this is just to go into the backup/restore gui (you don't even have to do anything).

The fix is at :- ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/sql/public/fixes/usa/SQL65/Sp5/sp5ax86.exe

The fixed build is 416 and is known as SP5a. I would recommend all SQL users make sure they use this SP rather than SP5. Using this (416) build it is possible to load "corrupt" dumps by setting trace flag 3282.

More information can be found in the readme and in Q215458.

This build also contains a number of other hot-fixes that did not make SP5 but were in the base build that Microsoft applied this fix to.

If you are already on SP5 (415) then the only files you need to update are sqlservr.exe (and .dbg) and opends60.dll (and .dbg).