Q2007 restore

A "restore" always restores the backup file name. When you suffix your backup file names with dates, a simple restore is no longer enough.

You'll need to delete (or rename) your current file, then rename the restored backup file. You can do both steps in Quicken using File Operations.

Thanks for the reply. I'm still not sure I understand. So I have my regular file open and do a restore of the latest date-named file (which is in the backup directory). Then what do I do? I need to have some file open in order to get to the menu items to do the rename/copy and I assume I can't rename the regular file if it's the one I have open? So I have to have some third file just to open to be able to rename my regular to something else and then rename the restored backup to my regular name? Seems pretty convoluted to me :-)

While you have significantly overstated the problem, there is no doubt that affixing the date to the name of your backup will create extra work to restore to restore it. (I think some folks have ignored this.)

The process of restoring is as simple as I first described.

Quicken can rename any Quicken file on your system, the file does not have to be open, but it can be open.

You can do your restore just as you have always done. When the restore is finished, (yes) you can rename the file you have open, then rename the restored file. Then open the renamed file. The two renames are the extra steps you must take.

I think I'll just turn off the date-named files :-)

If you do that, you miss out on having multiple backups, each with a generated identification number (the date!) indicating when it was created. This will defeat the purpose of having those available in case you need to go back to a specific time period. Subsequent backups will most likely simply overlay the previous ones. Read John's reply on dealing with the names in case you do need to do the restore. Don't throw out the baby with the bath!

"Opening" a backup file is a fundamental mistake. Once you do so, that file is no longer a backup file ... that backup is gone. If you are opening your backups for some mistaken sense of convenience, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

John. Not to give you a hard time, but why? The file that I open is 99% of the time from my Cd backup. (I copy all the associated files as well to my desk top). The original backup file is still on the hard drive, untouched. Maybe I have been lucky, but have had no problems.

Then the file you are opening is NOT your "backup file".

My comment was specifically aimed at opening a "backup" file ... not a "copy" of a backup file.

The purpose of a backup file is to preserve your data *exactly* as it was when you created the backup. While it is always wrong to "open" such a file, it is particularly wrong for a Qucken backup file.

First: understand that *every* change you make intentionally, or you allow Quicken to make, is "saved" to the currently open file ... *immediately*.

Secont: when Quicken "opens" a file, one of the first things it does is to enter automatic Scheduled Transactions into your account registers. The result of those additions to your Quicken registers are immediately "saved" to the file you opened ... in the case of this discussion ... your "backup" file.

[There may be oher such "alterations" that come into play that I have not thought of.]

Any other "change" you make to *anything* in Quicken while that "backup" file is open, will be immediately *saved* to the backup file.

The bottom line is: once you "open" that backup file, you can never again treat it as a "backup" file.

Since there is never any reason to "open" a backup, I suggest never doing so.