Quicken 2001 - "Unable to validate your file . . . "

I have been using Quicken 2001 (UK version) for a number of years without a problem, under platforms of Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro. and now Windows Vista Home Premium. This latest setup has been working quite happily for about 6 months but now, without warning, refuses to do so.

The program starts but any attempt to open a *.qdf file fails with this error

"Unable to validate your file. Contact Intuit Technical Support"

Sadly, UK versions of Quicken are no longer supported or updated by Intuit. The software is obviously fairly old but has always worked well, even with Vista. I don't believe this to be a Vista issue - it worked just fine for some months before this problem.

I have attempted to restore backups and validate the files, without success - same error message. However, the files are not corrupt because I can open them in Quicken installations under Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I have reinstalled the program - no change.

Does anyone have any further ideas, please?

Reply to
Mr. Slow
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Since the program starts, will it let you create/read a NEW Quicken file?

Reply to
Jim Jensen

Jim,

Thanks for your interest. Yes, I can create/backup/restore and read a new file. If I attempt to restore any of my old files I get a message saying that the restore is successful but when I try to open the file, I get the message "Unable to validate your file. Contact Intuit Technical Support".

Any clues?

Reply to
Mr. Slow

Sorry for your trouble but have you looked at the Vista security settings? I don't use Vista but have read on this forum about security settings getting in the way. Have you made any changes to your system that may have changed access permissions to the file that can't be used?

Just a thought.

Reply to
Marty K

You might try running UAC in the quiet mode, or disabling it temporarily, to see if that is the cause of your problem. Here is a tool that makes it easy:

formatting link

Reply to
Jim Jensen

Jim,

I have always run Vista with UAC disabled - it's far too intrusive for experienced computer users. I am intrigued that I can create and read a new file but not any of my old ones. There must be a clue there somewhere!

Reply to
Mr. Slow

Marty,

I haven't changed any of my Vista settings but of course, there are regular monthly updates from Microsoft which change things behind the scenes. It is of course entirely feasible that there has been an update which has moved the goal posts as far as Quicken is concerned but I can create and read a new file, but not any of my old ones. As I have said above - there must be a clue there somewhere!

Remove ".invalid" and replace with ".com" to reply

Reply to
Mr. Slow

How about this:

  1. Open the good file on the XP machine (It IS a separate machine, right?).
  2. Go into File/File Operations and rename the file.
  3. Validate the renamed file on the XP machine.
  4. Use Q backup to backup the renamed file from the XP machine to a flash drive.
  5. Use Q restore to restore the renamed file from the flash drive to the Vista machine.
  6. Open the renamed file on the Vista machine.
Reply to
Jim Jensen

Hi, Mr. Slow.

I haven't followed the whole thread so maybe I just missed it, but...

Have you given yourself permission to see those old files? Even with UAC disabled, Vista is much more protective of files belonging to other users. (Even to ourselves, in another life.) You may need to adjust your security settings or even Take Ownership of the folders where those files are.

This is not "security" as in protection from viruses and malware, but as in protection from authorized users who are not authorized to see these particular files.

As just one guy with just one computer, I've never had to learn much about permissions and such. But Vista has forced me to learn just a little about those topics. I couldn't Import my email archives into Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail until I took ownership of the Outlook Express Store Folder, even though it was right here on my hard drive all along. WM simply told me "there are no such files in that folder", but there obviously were plenty of .dbx files there.

Another factor is that Vista now enforces rules that we were supposed to have been following for a long time. Such as prohibiting writes to some folders, including the Root of C: (C:\) and C:\Program Files. Your old Quicken may have written your data files into Program Files and now Vista can't access them without explicit instructions from you. Even with UAC turned off. (By the way, I recommend that you turn UAC back on and learn how to use it. It's intrusive for the first week or two, but is much easier to live with after that.)

RC

Reply to
R. C. White

Jim. Thanks again. Your fix didn't work, but I figured out the reason when I started to get the same validation errors on a Win XP Pro machine. Some some reason, the backed up Quicken files on a flash drive I was using to copy between machines were corrupt. This is strange, because I must have backed up Quicken files a dozen or more times to that drive in an attempt to get this problem solved, and they were all corrupted every time. It appears it was a problem with the flash drive which I have now reformatted and the copied files are now working just fine on the Vista machine as well as that running XP. Thanks again for your efforts at solving this difficult issue - it would appear it was never a Quicken problem at all!

Reply to
Mr. Slow

Hi RC,

Thanks for your response. I managed to figure this out - the solution is in the thread above. Many thanks for your suggestions - I had incidentally already tried taking ownership of the supposedly corrupt files - without solving the problem.

I am afraid I will not be re enabling UAC; I've lived and survived without it over the years and really don't think I need it. These are hopefully not famous last words . . . . !

Thanks again

Reply to
Mr. Slow

It was an interesting puzzle. Glad you solved it.

Reply to
Jim Jensen

Hi, Mr. Slow.

Yes, I read it. Congratulations and thanks for the feedback.

OK. We each have our pet peeves and favorite fixes. ;^}

UAC is very intrusive at first, as we are tweaking Vista and installing applications and migrating data and learning where everything is in this newfangled interface. (Like when moving to a new house and stumbling in the dark to the kitchen when we meant to go to the bathroom. Everything's there; everything works; but nothing's where we remember it. But it soon becomes as familiar as the old place.) And that darned indexing service that's supposed to be working in the background takes over the CPU just when we need to do a quickie job.

But I don't even notice UAC anymore - most of the time. Only when I want to open an Administrator:Command Prompt window (Old DOS habits die hard and some jobs just can't be done in the GUI.), or run Disk Management or some other system utility. But I've chosen to not use a password, so it takes just a single mouse-click to dismiss what amounts to only a reminder to watch my step while working under the hood.

On the other hand, I haven't run an antivirus program in years, since Norton took so long to update NIS to 64-bits - and I found out that I don't need it, so long as I "practice safe hex". I still cringe when I remember all the hours - days! - that I used to spend tweaking NIS and downloading the frequent updates for it and wondering what all those cryptic codes really meant and if they were even important to me. "Running bare" gives me a very nice sense of freedom. As you so aptly said, "These are hopefully not famous last words . . . . !"

RC

Reply to
R. C. White

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