Quicken 2011 Backup

Sep 20, 2011 31 Replies

Hi, Jerry.

I don't really think of it as a problem, just as a curiosity. Quicken is working fine for me and the only time I see a problem is when I go looking for one. ; still running Q2011 Deluxe Revision R 8 (20.1.8.6) - the latest, so far as

Hi RC,

Since John hasn't responded yet, let me describe what I know. I'll let John confirm, correct or expand my explanation if he so chooses.

The BACKUP directory is created in the same folder as your QDF file. To the best of my knowledge this is not user-tunable.

Multiple QDF files in the same directory share the same BACKUP folder. QDF files in separate folders use separate BACKUP folders. The QDF file can be kept in any folder that has the appropriate access permissions; the rightmost component of that folder name is arbitrary, i.e. it need not be either "Quicken" or "QuickenW".

In the past the QDF file [set] was kept, at least by default, in the same folder as the Quicken program files. The rightmost component of the [default] Quicken installation folder was "Quicken" when I started using Q98 but I suspect it may have been "QuickenW" when you started [to distinguish it from the coexisting DOS version]. Looks like you may have retained your QDF files in a "QuickenW" folder even after the default Quicken installation folder changed to "Quicken."

FWIW my BACKUP folder has 5 Q10 backup files plus 5 Q08 backup file *sets* that [understandably] Quicken never deleted for me when I installed Q10.

I first noticed the Automatic Backups check box in Q10 and I suspect, but can't confirm, that it was added as part of the redesign of the backup mechanism for that version.

The "Open Backup Directory" link is new for Q11. It works fine for me [Windows 7 HP SP1, Q11 H&B R8].

My QDF file and its BACKUP folder are in C:\Users\Jerry\My Documents\Quicken. I copied my QDF file, but not its BACKUP folder, to C:\QuickenW, opened the copy, and got the same popup error message you got when I clicked the "Open Backup Directory" link. When I closed the copy an automatic backup was made in the newly-created C:\QuickenW\BACKUP folder. Reopening the QDF copy and clicking the "Open Backup Directory" link correctly located the newly-created BACKUP folder.

Don't know what your problem is RC, but it doesn't appear to be the "W" at the end of the folder name nor its location directly under the root directory for your file system. You might try renaming the BACKUP folder, letting Quicken create a new one, and seeing if "Open Backup Directory" can find that one. If that doesn't work, try renaming your QuickenW directory, creating a new one, copying your Quicken files [but not the BACKUP directory] to your new QuickenW directory, then opening that QDF copy. Sometimes Windows, application program bugs or malware mess up access permissions and recreating affected folders and/or files clears up mysterious problems.

Other than the above I'm out of ideas.

Jerry

Since we're talking backup strategies, here's mine:

1) Automatic backups (unmodified) 2) I get prompted to backup every time I exit.Backup goes to a folder labelled with the year 3) I use a program called "Karen's Replicator" to automatically copy the backup files to an external hard drive every morning.

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Regards, Hank Arnold Microsoft MVP W> >

Hank Arnold wrote in news:4e7f0ea1$0$4352 $ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

Mine is similar, except the backups made almost every time I exit go to a network attached hard drive. Karen also goes there, but a different "partition" (it's a WD MyBook NAS with a scheme of dividing up portions that is to me difficult to understand).

I also make images of my HD at intervals, alternating 2 external drives, using Win7 Backup.

It's really unfortunate that Karen Kenworthy passed away, but her nice software is still available (free):

This is a very good process, but the one thing that catches my attention is, what would you do if your house burned and destroyed your computer AND the backup drives? I backup my Quicken files each month, after I've completed my reconcile checkups and my Turbo Tax files each year, onto thumb drives. I store one of these in my storage building in the back yard and the other in my bank safe deposit box.

If my house burns, again, I will have the files available to import into a new computer with the Quicken and Turbo Tax client software freshly installed.

Gordon

I made a batch that:

  1. Asks for and confirms a password
  2. Uses free 7Zip to compress and password protect the backups into a folder.
  3. Uploads the folder to a cloud service (DropBox, SpiderOak, etc).

Keep folder under 2 GB and storage is free. Batch also zips other data and uploads to a second service. Batch can be run on demand or by Task Scheduler.

Except that thumb drives are notoriously bad for backups!

formatting link
Also, I don't believe that thumb drives have as good a data error checking facility (CRCs, bad sector redirects, etc.) as harder media.

How's about burning a CD or DVD instead??

That answer is from 2006. The technology has improved very much since then. Are flash drives impervious to "wearing out"? No. What is the number of read/write cycles the current crop of drives can do? Over

100,000 cycles for inexpensive drives, over 1,000,000 cycles for the better drives.

Also, it is the read/write cycle that causes the most "wear" of a flash drive. Backups have a very low read/write count, compared to, say, the hard drive in your computer. Yet, in many situations flash drives have replaced the hard drive in notebooks and high-performance enterprise disk arrays.

Since I am not a hardware whiz, I'll take your word for that. What what I've read, the current life span even without excessive use is about 10 years. Then you have the problem about whether 10 years from now you'd find a computer that can READ them (!). I'd have a hard time using some of my 3" 'floppies' now, never mind my old 5 1/4 inch floppies! (Forget my 8" ones, but those were from work anyway and I don't care anymore now....another story.)

Some say to recreate to 'current' media every year so one keeps up with the technology.

Let's try simple things first: 1. Is the target drive full? 2. Did your drives get renamed. This happens when you unplug and replug an external drive.

In Quicken do a control-B and look at what the target drive is. Use the file explorer to list the drives on COMPUTER. Is the target there? Right click on the drive and use tools to verify the disk is OK and not full.

Your comment about recreating to "current" technology is spot on, but I'd do it in 5 year intervals, not one year intervals. Five years should be long enough to allow you to keep up with the technology curve. For example, CDs came on the scene over 20 years ago, but they can still be easily read on current hardware (except for some Apple models that no longer have an optical drive).

While we're on the topic, if you put your back up media in a fire safe, make sure the fire safe is rated for computer media. The fire safes of yore were designed for protecting paper, which has a much higher temperature tolerance than CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, floppies, etc.

btw, I have a few 8" floppies, plus some paper tape from my old IMSAI micro.

Paper tape! The kind that had 3 holes, a delineator, then 5 more holds for a total of 8 across a strip?! That used to be how I backup up my programs in high school in the 1960s when we had access to a remote GE Mark computer using a TTY 33 teletype as the access vehicle! Brings back memories...

Yup, that kind of paper tape. :)

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