Current Quicken File

Hi, Bill.

You didn't tell us which operating system you are using, so I'm assuming WinXP Pro. Also, I'm assuming all default settings for Quicken. I'm using Quicken 2007 Basic in Vista Ultimate x64, so my screens will be slightly different from yours.

I'm not entirely clear on just what you are asking. But all versions of Quicken for at least several years have, by default, stored the current Quicken "file" right in the QuickenW folder; if you've changed the default location, you'll need to tell us about that. (What Quicken calls a "file" is actually a set of related files including *.qdf, plus some others that vary depending on how YOU use Quicken - but you probably knew all that.)

In other words, your BILL.QDF file is probably in C:\Program Files\QuickenW\BILL.QDF, and the related BILL.* files are there, too. In addition to any backups that you may have made and put elsewhere, there should be a C:\Program Files\QuickenW\BACKUP folder and that should list 5 sets of backups, dated a week apart, starting no more than a week ago and working backwards. Manual backups, of course, were put wherever YOU decided, so we can't help you there.

You should be able to browse to your latest good backup and Restore that. Please don't use File | Open for that backup, because Quicken will immediately change the file as it loads, making it unreliable as a backup for the future. You might want to Restore an older backup first, just to make sure that Quicken works properly with that. When you are reasonably sure that any downloading problems are cleared up in that earlier file, you can restore your latest file to see if the problems have cleared there, too. I don't download transactions, so I can't help much with your specific problem, but there are others here who know a lot more about that and I'm sure some of them will chime in.

RC

Hi R. C.

Just fyi...I am in the process of migrating to a new laptop. I did a clean install of Q2007P without overriding any of the install paths on my new laptop. I am running Vista Ultimate. The install created a Quicken folder (not QuickenW) and when I set-up a TEST data file it ended up under > Users > MY PROFILE > Documents > Quicken. I thought this was a strange place to place the files, but this is where copied my data files from my old laptop.

With he help of some knowledgable people, I managed to get my problem cleared. Thanks to all that replied. Bill

Hi, Oilcan.

Thanks for the update. When I installed Q2007B into Vista Ultimate, it "inherited" all the settings that I've been carrying forward for a decade or more, so I haven't seen all Quicken's true defaults in a long time.

As I recall, the folder name QuickenW originated way back when the Windows version first became available in the early '90s, to distinguish it from the MS-DOS versions. I'm not sure what year they dropped the "W". Also, as I've said before, when WinXP (or was it Win2K) introduced the "Program Files" folder and Quicken began putting its folder there, I was still dual-booting Win98 and using FAT(16), which could not handle folder names that included spaces. So I created a new E:\QuickenW folder that could be accessed from both Win98 and WinXP, and that arrangement has persisted through many versions of Quicken and Windows.

And, yes, Vista has changed the Users folders! Since I'm a one-man, one-computer kind of guy with no users but me and no net but the Internet, I never learned much about users and permissions and such. I still sometimes have trouble finding where Vista has put some of my applications. But I know where QuickenW is! ; Hi R. C.

Hi, Bill.

I'm glad we could help. In a newsgroup, we all learn one day, then teach the next day. For the benefit of others with similar problems and questions, could you tell us what you learned about Quicken's behavior?

And be sure to mention whether you are using WinXP or Vista or some other operating system.

RC

Bill Rueck wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

In Q2006 (and before), the backups are stored in a folder called backup within the same folder the data files are in.

I use Karen's Replicator (freeware) to make automatic backups to an external drive where each night a new directory is created for the backup files, so I have a lot of historical backups. Don't know whether Replicator has been updated for Vista, like Irfanview has. Irfanview is an image viewer and converter .

RC,

I created a "BillActiveDataset" folder and moved the current working file into the folder. I opened the new file and it is now my active file. I don't know if what I did is right but it seems to be working ok now. Now I have to figure how the automatic backup works and where it is stored. I'm using Win XP and Quicken 2005. Thanks to all that responded to my call for help. Bill

Please excuse my ignorance. Should the automatic backup folder be within the same folder the data files are in? In my case "BillActiveDataset"? Bill

Hi, Bill.

See if you have a folder named "BillActiveDataset\BACKUP". The BACKUP name will be in ALL CAPS. The Quicken default (in WinXP using Q2005) is to put this at C:\Program Files\Quicken\BACKUP.

But you might have to wait a week to see it appear. Quicken creates this folder when it does its first automatic backup, usually 7 days after Quicken is installed. I'm not sure what the timetable is for creating the BACKUP folder in a newly-created data folder after Quicken is already up and running. (While I agree that it is poor programming, I've not moved my main data fileset - or the BACKUP folder - out of my QuickenW folder, where Quicken put them by default.)

RC

Bill Rueck wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I run XP, not Vista, and Q2006, not 2007. Therefore the behavior I report may npt pertain to your setup.

To see for yourself, search your drives for "*.qdf" (no quotes), making sure you have set access to all files and folders. Then sort the results by date and/or folder.

That's where mine is. My primary folder is in My Documents and Q named it "Quicken". It also automatically created a sub-folder called BACKUP the first time I did a backup.