# of Backup copies > 9???

joe wrote in news:smri2217pkltcqsbo92ugbn05alisu7jbr@

4ax.com:

I backup to a folder on an external hard drive. Each file name has the date appended to it. Right now I have 15 iterations. Whenever I get around to it I manually delete all but the most recent 2 or 3.

I guess it would be nice if you could tell it to keep "n" backups and have the oldest automatically fall off. (Kind of like GDG's, which should be familiar to anyone who worked on an MVS system)

This must be either a feature or a flaw in Q. Looks stupid to me - just like that constant insane invitation, at the end of nearly every paragraph in the help files, to tell Q what you want done to 'improve' the program.

That is how Quicken's auto backup feature works; the op's apparently different experience to the contrary not withstanding. If you told Quicken to keep two backups you would get QDATA1.QDF, followed by QDATA2.QDF, then the third backup would delete QDATA2.QDF, rename QDATA1.QDF to QDATA2.QDF, and backup to a new QDATA1.QDF.

I use seven Quicken backup folders, one for each day of the week; I just put the backup in the folder for the day I am doing the backup. I do not append the date to the name of the backup; every backup to a daily folder overwrites the previous backup in that folder. That's a few more backups than the two or three you wanted, but with disk space as cheap as it is, it isn't much of a burden. And it dovetails nicely with Quicken's auto backup which occurs about every week ... so my manual backups occur nearly daily and I keep 5 of Quicken's auto backups, so I have one for virtually every week for at least a month.

Possibly you are confusing two different types of Quicken backup: the one you initiate and the one Quicken does automatically every 7 days or so. It is Quicken's automatic backups that are limited to a number from 1 to 9. You will find those backups in the folder named BACKUP in the folder where your Quicken fileset resides. If you told Quicken to keep a max of 5 backups, you should find files named QDATA1.QDF thru QDATA5.QDF (plus the other files in Quicken's fileset).

This makes perfect sense - perhaps appending date (as suggested) makes a difference??? Have seen no warning that it should.

Wow -- GDG's -- not only MVS, but MVT (even MFT) systems. Thanks for the memory!

Only have 3 sets in Backup folder - which matches roughly the # of weeks I have been intercoursing with Q this time around.

Why so many backups in the first place - two or three would seem very adequate.

Bottom line as I understand it my H drive will keep expanding until I manually delete? Sanity would be auto backup of X # of copies in a user designated place - show a splash screen if Q must. A simple one time setting for the user.

Sorry, I don't see any correlation between what you have selected for auto backups in Quicken and how many backup files )with single digits appended to their name) you are seeing.

Again, I don't understand "why so many backups"? I do not believe that Quicken has EVER created more auto backups than the number you specify. As far as the number of backups that YOU have created ... those are unlimited.

No comprende.

Please carefully reread my previous posts in this thread. I do not have any infinitely expanding number of backups ... and I NEVER have to delete any backups.

Hi, Joe.

This question about backups comes up here at least once a year. Here's a copy'n'paste from a post I made here in 2003:

Perhaps some sample path\filenames would help to clarify all this.

When you start Quicken, it opens the default data file (actually a set of related files, as we've often discussed), which is \QuickenW\qdata.qdf (and related files, such as qdata.qsd, etc.). When you exit Quicken, it updates \QuickenW\qdata.* before Quicken closes. This copy is always absolutely current because it contains the very last entry you made.

Every third (by default) time you exit Quicken, it reminds you to backup. If you say yes, it puts the backup file(s) wherever you say, let's assume D:\QBak\qdata.qdf, etc. It overwrites the prior version of D:\QBak\qdata.*, unless you say No and provide a different filename. This backup is current as of that point, but it won't include entries after that point and before your next backup, of course.

Every week, without asking, Quicken also does its automatic backup, writing a set of files to \QuickenW\BACKUP\qdata1.qdf, etc. Before writing

*\qdata1.*, it first deletes qdata5.*, etc. Then it renames qdata4.* to qdata5.*; renames qdata3.* to qdata4.*; qdata2.* to qdata3.*; and qdata1.* to qdata2.*. So, after the 5th week of this, you will always have qdata1.* through qdata5.* in your \QuickenW\BACKUP. None of these, of course, will have entries you've made after the times when those backups were made.

I've you've been using Quicken more than a couple of months, you should at all times have many backups, including at least THREE less-than-a-week-old copies of your file:

1. \QuickenW\BACKUP\qdata1.qdf - the latest automatic backup;
2. \D:\QBak\qdata.qdf - your latest voluntary (reminded?) backup; and
3. your current, up-to-the-minute \QuickenW\qdata.qdf.

Actually, I seldom see a reminder to backup. That's probably because I usually backup at least once - and maybe several times - during each session. For example, I usually backup, after downloading today's quotes, again after each reconciliation, again after entering today's transactions... This over-cautious behavior is because of habits formed several years ago when disk errors were much more common than now and I often lost my last several minutes' input. Disk and other computer problems don't lose my data very often anymore, but old habits die hard, so I still backup several times a day. All it takes is -B, then Enter to accept my prior location as the default.

The system in Quicken 2006 is little changed from 2003. The option to automatically add the date as part of the filename has been added, but I never use that. Quicken Preferences invites confusion because the Backup preferences window's two lines actually apply to the two different kinds of backup. The "Remind after..." question is clear enough, but the next line sets the "Maximum number of backup copies" without making it clear that these are the automatic backups, not the "reminded" backups. The manual backup window also can be confusing unless we read it carefully.

As you may have noticed, the automatic backups happen weekly, starting with the day you install Quicken. (Or is it the day you create the .qdf file?) So if you install it on Friday, all your automatic backups will be dated on Fridays.

In addition to the automatic backups and my frequent manual backups to one specific location, I also like to make occasional backups to a second physical drive and to CDs, just like you. And, yes, most backups should be deleted from time to time. Keep only "milestone" backups and delete all the routine ones. But keep multiple copies - in different places - of the permanent ones.

RC

Thanks to both John P and you for your efforts. (and many others) I understand that John manually moves files to a folder for each day of the week and thus over-writes the older ones. That certainly is sound but extreme. When "any" program has clear flaws then there is a loss of confidence in reading help files, menus or anything. It is seldom worth dedicating a lot of time guessing and testing. When one sees self promotion and solicitations built right in well ...

Your file is helpful and I will keep a c>Hi, Joe.

Not sure what you find "extreme" about what I do. What I do is totally related to backup philosophy: my Quicken data is the most important data on my pc. My approach guarantees me that I have a backup no older than than the last time I used Quicken and I have backups that go back far enough that I have a good chance to recover from most problems, even ones that went unnoticed for a while.

I regularly copy my Quicken backup folders, and my current Quicken fileset (along with backups of other apps) to a CD.

And I don't "move" anything; when I am ready to exit Quicken, I do a backup; if it is a Tuesday, for example, I tell Quicken to put the backup in the "Tuesday" folder. That's all there is to it.

Let me add my second to John P's and others comments on the importance of numerous bak-ups. I too consider my QW data the most important files on my system. I also have extensive genealogy files including a few hundred old photos which are priceless to me.

Two years ago I experienced a sudden hard drive failure - no warning. My most recent QW backup to CD was nearly 3 months old. I had just finished my taxes but not yet e-filed. Had just about finished scanning and editing nearly 200 old photos [many-many hours of work] and no backup to CD - was waiting to get the last few done.

Talk about a sinking feeling - approaching panic!!!

I now have a second HD installed plus a removable HD plus a lap-top on a wirless network. I backup daily to the main HD using John P's procedure. I backup weekly to the main drive and to the other HD's and also copy to the LT. I have weekly back-ups going back many months [including QW05 files] - don't feel pressure to clean house as yet due to lots of MT disc space.

I have had occassion to search back thru the weekly backups to find where/when something strange occured in a file. As John alludes to, I also worry about data corruption that goes un-noticed for a period of time - days - weeks? I want a restore point available.

Over-kill - probably so - but it makes me feel good.

My weak spot is off-site storage - need to at least start doing backups to CD and store these in the detached garage. Have taken a few cursory looks at online storage but have not taken the plunge - will probably wait until my house burns down :

There are people that have dedicated their lives to a particular program - this is all well and good. Yes for some programs you almost have to - to make the damn things run . I try not to be one of those. In my book if it does not work at once - throw it out. I have also experienced every pc failure known but have rarely lost data since I keep data on a different physical disk etc. In 10-15 years of using Q I may have had to reenter one or two sessions of data EXCEPT to get from ver 5 early 90's to 06 I HAD TO HAND ENTER ALL OF THIS YEARS DATA. Prior years is lost. Thank you Q

- so happy you support your program long term.

Re-entering one or two sessions of data is less effort than doing stuff every single session. We may differ in that opinion. Next thing we may talk about keeping the pc on 24-7 or turning it off. Why not your car also.

I do use Ghost for the C: drive which should have NOTHING PERMANENT. Norton Ghost is better and twice as fast as Acronis - for my uses. I will also use the XP restore. Data is kept on a different physical drive. MAKE SURE to have the pc monkey disconnect it before he tamper with the PC! Important data - photos etc. is copied to one or two external drives and really important stuff is also on a DVD or CD also. If I am out of town I take one drive with me - in the trunk of a car. To do all this one also needs to have a duplicate file finder and some sort of archival software. Sorry - to me Q remains 'just a tool' that I tolerate. It is not particularly good. Q philosophy is clearly not customer oriented - even less today than 10 years ago. joe

"JM" wrote in news:1143647351.512426.233650 @u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com:

And then there are the FREE online storage sites. Another good place to back up your backup.