Can't backup Q2005 to CD

It sounds like Quicken does not have the ability to backup/burn the file to a CD directly. If you were using a formated CD-RW it might work. Ditto with a USB flash drive.

You probably should just backup your file to your hard drive and then burn the file to the CD using your installed CD burning software like Nero or Roxio.

Q2005 seems to have a CD genie or whatever, but just as it seems ready to burn it, and I put in an arbitrary file name, or even copy the the path and name (with E:\) it balks: Please enter a valid path. I guess you might be right and I'll have to depend on 3 floppies that took an exceptionally long time to copy. What gets me is after the first floppy, it says insert floppy #3! Thank you for your help. John P John Polasek

I finally got it to backup, and yes it did go to a backup file on C:, which I had to find by browsing and picking out and causing it tob burn, but in general, a very flakey operation, nothing like Ctl B and flopppies. Thank you for your help. John P John Polasek

I don't think there is anything flakey about the operation at all.

I do not backup directly to CD from within Quicken, but I believe that Quicken gives you two choices: use the Windows CD Writing Wizard, or not. The option is available in the Backup dialog.

If you use the Wiindows CD Writing Wizard, I believe it is normal that the files you select are written to a temporary folder, from which you then tell Windows to actually burn the CD: that is, I do not think the behavior is unique to Quicken.

If you elect not to use the Windows Wizard, you can write directly to the CD from within Quicken, but I believe that requires a formatted CD. I think this too, is normal behavior.

And I beleive that only XP offers the windows CD writing capabilities. If you have Roxio or Nero installed you *MAY* be able to use that instead.

You are correct. It may actually be an Intuit feature as Quickbooks also behaves the same way. Since it is a 2 step process, I have always found it easier to create the backup to the hard drive and then copy to a CD-RW, USB Drive or burn it to a CD-R. I don't have a floppy drive any more so that option is no longer available for me. It also means that I have 2 copies of the backup. One on a removable media and one on my harddrive.

That's what I remember too. It needs to be a formated CD-RW, Plus you need to have a third-party CD burning software installed like Roxio or Nero to bypass the Windows wizard.

| >It sounds like Quicken does not have the ability to backup/burn the file to | >a CD directly. If you were using a formated CD-RW it might work. Ditto with | >a USB flash drive. | >

| >You probably should just backup your file to your hard drive and then burn | >the file to the CD using your installed CD burning software like Nero or | >Roxio. | Q2005 seems to have a CD genie or whatever, but just as it seems ready | to burn it, and I put in an arbitrary file name, or even copy the the | path and name (with E:\) it balks: Please enter a valid path. | I guess you might be right and I'll have to depend on 3 floppies that | took an exceptionally long time to copy. What gets me is after the | first floppy, it says insert floppy #3! | Thank you for your help. | John P | John Polasek |

Why not try the suggestion above to backup your file to *the hard drive*? Then, fire up CD-burning software such as Nero or Roxio, NOT Quicken's "CD Genie", to burn your backup to a CD.

The whole point of doing this is: A lot of (if not most) software programs do not work well (or work at all) reading/writing *directly* with CDs. Therefore, bypass the software's "built-in" CD-burning program. In other words, the file you want to put on the CD you must first put on the hard drive and then use software specifically designed to burn files to CD. The software will copy/burn the file from the hard drive to the CD.

Later, if you need to use the backup, you will need to copy it from the CD to the hard drive again, remove the "read-only" attribute of the file, then use Quicken to restore the backup file.

Hope this helps!

snip

| I finally got it to backup, and yes it did go to a backup file on C:, | which I had to find by browsing and picking out and causing it tob | burn, but in general, a very flakey operation, nothing like Ctl B and | flopppies. | Thank you for your help. | John P | John Polasek |

Thanks to all for your information. So far I haven't tried to recover from the CD, but presumably it will be OK. John P John Polasek