A system according to certain aspects improves the process of restoring database objects and converting those objects into another database file format. According to certain aspects, a database file is backed up in a block-level fashion. Instead of restoring the entire backup file, which can consume a large amount of time and computing resources, the information management system may restore a particular database object from a backup database file that is stored as multiple blocks or other granular units. Then, the information management system can extract the desired data from the restored block(s). By using block-level mapping and storage techniques described herein, the system can restore a database object in a backup database file without restoring the entire backup database file, thereby speeding up restore operations and reducing consumption of storage and processing resources. In addition, the information management system can convert the blocks, using a staging memory, to another database file format as desired.