Q2010 Backup Files

Ken Blake wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

The qdata.qdf could/should be the file with the current data, but may be an older backup. The qdata.qdf-backup is a backup file (as of yesterday). I would predict that there is also a qdata.qdf file somewhere with yesterdays date.

The other files are backups from a previous versino of Quicken, I believe.

Now (with Q10) Quicken saves all the data in 1 file named something.qdf.

No, the date makes that not possible. That's the date when I installed Q2010. And the current data should be in the \Quicken Data folder, not in the \Quicken Backup folder.

It must be.

That's what I thought and was asking about. So is that and the Attach folder all I need to keep in this backup folder?

Sure--the actual file used, in \Quicken Data. There's also another in \Quicken Data\Q09 files, dated 2/7, which I assume is the backup of the Quicken 09 data that was automatically made when I installed Q2010.

Good. So what I hoped was the case, that I need to keep nothing here but the qdata.qdf-backup file and the Attach folder is correct?

That's what I thought, but I was looking for verification of that, and making sure that my understanding of what each of the files was is correct.

Thanks very much.

Q2010 has only one Quicken file ... the one with the .QDF extension. That file contains *everything*; including your attachments ... so you do not need any other file or any other folder.

[You didn't say what the file dates you posted represented, so just to clarify: the Windows Quicken file "date created" is not the pertinent date ... it's the Windows "date modified".]

Hi, Ken.

Q2010 originally had a backup scheme that seemed bizarre to me - and to some other long-time users here!

Not only did the new all-in-one QDF file jump from about 32 MB to over 70 MB for me, but Q2010 was automatically backing up the file several times a day, and creating a new file each time! Gigabytes of disk space was being gobbled up at a prodigious rate - and my own manual backups were gobbling up even more. Something clearly demanded fixing - FAST!

Intuit did make some significant fixes quickly; in Release 3 as I recall, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Now my automatic backups are about 47 MB for each file. I've updated as soon as each Release appeared and now am running Release R 5.

The automatic backup filenames also changed with the later Release(s). Rather than the simple 8.3 filename - which I limited to 6.3 to allow for the automatic backup to append a numeral - we now have a name of about 25.10 (about a 25 character filename plus 10-character extension). :>( There are now TEN automatic backups in my E:\QuickenW\BACKUP folder, even though my Preferences are set to FIVE copies (and to back up after running Quicken 5 times); the latest automatic backup filename in BACKUP is: qdata-2010-02-13.PM12.58.QDF-backup

That filename is informative, showing that it was automatically backed up at

12:58 pm today, but it is clumsier to work with. And the several periods in the filename can be confusing, especially for those who don't realize that there is only ONE actual extension; the first two periods are part of the date/time format. QDF-backup is the extension.

Q2010 is still nonchalant about the consumption of disk space. Those 10 automatic backups take almost 500 MB on my hard disk. They all are dated in

2010: on 1/22, 1/26, 1/28, 1/29, 1/31, 2/2, 2/4, 2/7, 2/10 and today, 2/13/2010.

In addition to the automatic backups, I also make a manual backup several times a day. The box to "Add date and time to backup file name" is NOT checked. And I always click to "Yes, Overwrite Existing", so I have only a single manual backup file, in addition to the 5 (or 10) automatic backups. In my opinion, Backups are not the same as Archives; one good backup is all we really need, and we need it only long enough to confirm that the current working copy is safe and good.

I do have a few more redundant backup files, but I think that Q2010 automatically makes just the ones in the BACKUP folder, and that each automatic backup consists of just the single large file with a very long name and the .QDF-backup extension.

So, all your files with .QEL, QTX, etc., extensions must be for Quicken versions prior to Q2010. Whether you delete them - or archive them - is up to you, but I don't think that Q2010 cares about them at all.

And my current working Quicken folder has just 3 data files:

2/13/10 qdata.QDF 47 MB 2/13/10 qdataOFXLOG.DAT .5 MB 2/10/10 qdataOFXOLD.DAT .5 MB

I've used ATTACH very sparingly, and apparently not at all so far with Q2010, so I don't know about the contents of that folder.

RC

My back-up files (automatic) are 903 KB. So my five files take up about

4.5 GB. But I do have lots of attachments. My last Q2009 files were just under 30 KB - excluding the attachment folder.

Oilcan

-----Original Message----- From: R. C. White [mailto: snipped-for-privacy@grandecom.net] Posted At: Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:46 PM Posted To: alt.comp.software.financial.quicken Conversation: Q2010 Backup Files Subject: Re: Q2010 Backup Files

Hi, Ken.

Q2010 originally had a backup scheme that seemed bizarre to me - and to some other long-time users here!

Not only did the new all-in-one QDF file jump from about 32 MB to over

70 MB for me, but Q2010 was automatically backing up the file several times a day, and creating a new file each time! Gigabytes of disk space was being gobbled up at a prodigious rate - and my own manual backups were gobbling up even more. Something clearly demanded fixing - FAST!

Intuit did make some significant fixes quickly; in Release 3 as I recall, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Now my automatic backups are about 47 MB for each file. I've updated as soon as each Release appeared and now am

running Release R 5.

The automatic backup filenames also changed with the later Release(s). Rather than the simple 8.3 filename - which I limited to 6.3 to allow for the automatic backup to append a numeral - we now have a name of about

25.10 (about a 25 character filename plus 10-character extension). :>( There are now TEN automatic backups in my E:\QuickenW\BACKUP folder, even though my Preferences are set to FIVE copies (and to back up after running Quicken 5 times); the latest automatic backup filename in BACKUP is: qdata-2010-02-13.PM12.58.QDF-backup

That filename is informative, showing that it was automatically backed up at

12:58 pm today, but it is clumsier to work with. And the several periods in the filename can be confusing, especially for those who don't realize that there is only ONE actual extension; the first two periods are part of the date/time format. QDF-backup is the extension.

Q2010 is still nonchalant about the consumption of disk space. Those 10

automatic backups take almost 500 MB on my hard disk. They all are dated in

2010: on 1/22, 1/26, 1/28, 1/29, 1/31, 2/2, 2/4, 2/7, 2/10 and today, 2/13/2010.

In addition to the automatic backups, I also make a manual backup several times a day. The box to "Add date and time to backup file name" is NOT checked. And I always click to "Yes, Overwrite Existing", so I have only a single manual backup file, in addition to the 5 (or 10) automatic backups. In my opinion, Backups are not the same as Archives; one good backup is all we really need, and we need it only long enough to confirm that the current working copy is safe and good.

I do have a few more redundant backup files, but I think that Q2010 automatically makes just the ones in the BACKUP folder, and that each automatic backup consists of just the single large file with a very long

name and the .QDF-backup extension.

So, all your files with .QEL, QTX, etc., extensions must be for Quicken versions prior to Q2010. Whether you delete them - or archive them - is up to you, but I don't think that Q2010 cares about them at all.

And my current working Quicken folder has just 3 data files:

2/13/10 qdata.QDF 47 MB 2/13/10 qdataOFXLOG.DAT .5 MB 2/10/10 qdataOFXOLD.DAT .5 MB

I've used ATTACH very sparingly, and apparently not at all so far with Q2010, so I don't know about the contents of that folder.

RC

Thanks very much RC. See you tomorrow or Tuesday!

Ken

Great, and thanks. Then I'll delete everything in the backup folder other than qdata.qdf-backup.