Problem with Investment Account

Hi, Alan.

Maybe you don't need to recreate that Vanguard account.

Unless you also deleted all the backup files that Quicken makes automatically each week, you should be in pretty good shape.

What Quicken calls a "file" is really a set of related files. In this newsgroup, we often refer to this group of files as a Quicken "fileset". We can make as many (or as few) backups of this fileset as we like, either from within Quicken or by using other Windows tools, such as Copy. In addition to these "manual" backups, Quicken makes automatic backups each week. Even if we don't make such backups - or even if we delete all of these backups - Quicken s automatic backups should still be there. By default, they will be in a folder named C:\Program Files\Quicken\BACKUP. The most recent set of files would be named QDATA1.* ; the set from a week before would be QDATA2.*, etc. I don't recall what the default number of automatic backups is; I've set my Quicken to keep 5 generations, so my oldest set, QDATA5.QDF, etc., is dated 6/20/06, just over a month ago. (Click Edit | Preferences | Quicken Program | Backup. Note that the 2 numbers you can enter here do NOT refer to the same thing. The first is for how often Quicken should remind you to make MANUAL backups; the second is for how many weeks of AUTOMATIC backups Quicken should keep before deleting the oldest to make room for the newest.)

Even if you've deleted all your manual backups, you should be able to click File | Restore Backup File, then browse to that Quicken\BACKUP folder and load the QDATA1.QDF file (which will automatically include the whole fileset). If this latest backup does not include the Account you need, try the QDATA2 set, and so on.

Once you've found the latest backup with a working Vanguard account, Export that one Account to a QIF file. Then reload your most current file and Import that one account. (Actually, I'm not as experienced in this Import/Export stuff as some regulars here. Also, I've done very little downloading of transactions. If you hit a snag, John Pollard should be able to bail you out.)

Let us know how this works out for you. Also, it's always a good idea to tell us which version of Quicken you are running, because some features (such as the QIF function) have changed in later versions.

RC

Dear RC,

Thank you for taking the time to provide a thorough and understandable process for me. Unfortunately, my only valid backups occurred after I deleted the files.

Thanks for trying to help.

Alan