Quicken Backups

I know of no option that is intended to control which files in Quicken's fileset get backed up ... because Quicken intends to always back them all up.

Do you by chance use Vista? If so (for that matter, even if not), I suggest creating a new Windows folder (as the Windows user that runs Quicken) for your Quicken backups. See if that helps.

The QEL file contains your online account setup info and the Financial Institutition Transaction ID's for every transaction you have downloaded. Quicken important.

The IDX file is some kind of index file; if it's missing Quicken will create a new one, with no apparent problem to the user. Not very important.

I believe the HCX file is strictly a Canadian file; the Canadian FAQ's mention the file extension, but I don't see any description of what it is for. If the Canadian version keeps foreign exchange history, perhaps that's what the HCX file is for.

John,

Am not using Vista. I created another backup folder and did a backup. Same thing happened. Only the QDF file is backed up. I then noticed on the Quicken Window that opens to do a backup a statement at the top that says "Backup Data file: Home Accounts_20090522.QDF" The file name is correct, its my QDF file, but it appears that Quicken will only back up the QDF file and nothing else. You can't change this in the window, it's simply a statement. The price histories are certainly in the QPH file because I extracted the data from an older one last weekend using the QPH file extraction utility you pointed to me to. Does Quicken in the US version do this as well or is it a "feature" of the Cdn version?

Thanks.

Doug

The US version of Quicken shows basically what you describe; but I don't think that just because it says "Home Accounts_20090522.QDF" means that it will only backup the QDF file. My backup dialog only displays the name of the QDF file (just as yours does), but my backup backs up all the files in the Quicken fileset.

I would move my Quicken fileset to a new folder (created by the Windows user that uses Quicken). [I would experiment with backing up to my hard drive, and to one, or more, offline media; using the new fileset.]

But before I did anything else: I would rename my Quicken data fileset (using Quicken's Rename feature) so the name was less than 8 characters (and did not include any non-alphanumeric characters - including spaces). I would also make sure my Quicken file resided in a folder which I had read/write access to, and whose name was shorter than 39 characters, and whose path name did not include any non-alphanumeric characters (including spaces).

OK, I think I figured it out. Quicken will automatically back-up all files every seven days, saving up to five copies and then will re- write over the oldest file. All of these are saved in the Quicken \Backup folder. I can see all of the back-ups of all the files in this folder. If one uses the backup command from the menu structure, only the QDF file is saved (which I have always saved to a different folder from the autobackup folder - why I can't remember, but I did). Why the other files are not saved, don't know, but they are saved in the automatic backup done weekly. The weekly timing of this auto backup does not seem to be configurable.

Doug

Hank Arnold wrote in news:4a9a59d3$0$10291$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

I think that afile that hasn't changed is not (or not always) included in the backups. At least that is what seems to happen with my files (I back up every time, to selected locations that are "mapped" to drives but are not physically on the machine.

Quicken would never intentionally not backup all the files in its fileset.

I would change the name of your Quicken fileset; I would remove any characters that are not letters or numbers, and I would keep the name short. I would stop suffixing the date to the backup file name. And, while I was logged on as the Windows user that runs Quicken, I would create a new folder for the backup, a folder that also adhered to the aforementioned "rules", and the path to which was not greater than 39 characters.

Well, I simply renamed the file set as you indicated and ran a manual back-up. All files were copied. I did not stop the suffixing of the backup file name without any issues or problems. All is good (I think!). Thanks for your help.

Doug

skoopy had written this in response to

------------------------------------- DGD wrote:

regularly, but when I check the back-up files, I noticed that only the QDF file is backed up. The others are not, in particular the QPH file (which contains all of the price histories as I understand it). Is there something that should checked somewhere to ensure all of the files are backed up?

1. If you search for Quicken data files from within Quicken, it will show you only the .qdf file.

Look at your data folders and backup folders from My Computer or Windows Explorer, and you'll see the whole Quicken data set.

1. The automatic backup done by Quicken every so many days is kept on your hard drive and is NOT sufficient for backup safety. If you enter data between the automatic backups, you'll lose that if the active data set becomes corrupted or is somehow lost. If your hard drive crashes, you'll lose everything.

YOU NEED TO ALSO BACK UP MANUALLY TO SOME EXTERNAL MEDIA EVERY TIME YOU USE QUICKE! (CD Rom, DVD, or flash drive or external hard drive.)

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