so how would the code look for an attachment which is stored in the database ?
Ive had many databases look exactly like that and have restored them to live site fine and to localhost fine.Until i seen this post i just assumed it was natural.

maybe i just haven't looked hard at them before or the program i use to look at them makes it look different or something.

but i digress

i would go for the restore now since it can't do any harm anyways.

That dump looks fine, that wierd code is biniary data from attachments

My backups look like that all the time. Like Zachery said, that's just the binary attachment being converted to string data. Notice how at the end of the big long blob of garbage, the text returns to normal - and the insert is for the Attachment table. :) Those clues say the file is fine.

Well I tried to restore it and it said it hadnt closed a ) in the attachment bit. Anyway you can close this if you want now because the old host server acm back online and I just got the DB through WHM transfer :D

Thanks
Danny