RESTORE revisited

I can't quite follow your description. Particularly, I am unclear about the names of each of the files you have.

Your Quicken data is stored in multiple Windows files. If your Quicken data is named "QDATA", then your Quicken data is stored in Windows files named, "QDATA.*" ... that is, every file with the name QDATA, and any file extension.

If you do not have a Windows file with an extension of ".qdf", you do not have a usable Quicken fileset for that filename.

You can ignore the Q3.DIR file; it is not part of your data. You can also ignore any ".idx" file; it does not contain any original data.

The other files (like .qel, .qsd, qph) are valid files for your Quicken data and have varying degrees of importance to your data ... but without the "qdf" file ... you have no meaningful data.

Quicken operates on the files with the .qdf extension (and takes care of knowing all the other files that comprise the fileset); if you want to open, rename, restore, etc.; Quicken expects you to point it to a Windows file with a .qdf extension. When you do that, Quicken will include all the other Windows files with the same Windows file name in any operation it performs.

Here is some clarification. When I restore, the program want me to state the file to use. So I browse to the Zip drive and the only file that appears is Sala2002bkp which is defined as the quicken qdf date file although it does not have an extension shown like the other files do. The reason that only this file shows in the selection is that the program asks for files in Quicken that only end in the extensions: qdf qb1 qdb and qd1 so I only can select the sala2002bkp file. And when I restore it, all my account names and descriptions show as N/A. I looks like the accounts are all there, but the full information is missing to use them. The security list is also blank.

Does this help?

Steve

stetrekve wrote:

I also looked for any other files modified with today's date. In /program files/quicken/ I found the .RMD .CFG .DAT .DIR and .QFI so - these files are not backed up, and therefore not restored but must be somehow rebuilt after the daily transaction download.

The Quicken "Open" and "Restore" operations never display the extension of files; they only display files that are valid for their purpose.

But your original description indicated that the Sala2002bkp fileset did not contain a qdf file, which is what was confusing. You also asked how to get restore to allow you to use other files ... the answer is that restore should offer to use every file with a qdf extension. If you want to restore from some other backup, you need to find files that have the .qdf extension. (The only other possible extension of Q2004 backups would be ".qb1", which most likely would be on a floppy disk.) You can always see the file extensions in Windows Explorer (if you haven't hidden them).

I have read of this a few times. Never read of a known cause, but I think it indicates some corruption, especially if exiting Quicken and restarting does not eliminate the problem. If it's corruption, the approach would be to make a Quicken Copy of the data; Validate the Copy; then test to see if the problem still exists in the Validated Copy. (If not, make that Copy your regular file.)

Hi, Steve.

Are you mixing up Quicken's Backup with Windows' Backup?

I'm not very familiar with either backup/restore process, although I have used them a few times. Generally, the Restore must match the Backup program used. In other words, you can't Backup from Windows and then Restore with Quicken's Restore from backup.

As John says, when you let Quicken do the Backup, it will automatically include QDF, along with all the QEL, QPH, etc., files that YOU are using. Later, when you ask Quicken to Restore your file, it will show you only the QDF file, but when you select that, it will find and restore the entire set.

As we've discussed often here, when Quicken says "file", it really means the entire set of what the rest of the world calls files. Here, we often refer to the Quicken "fileset", rather than "file", to indicate that we know we are dealing with the whole set, not just the QDF file.

I also have never used a Zip drive. Could it be that your Sala2002bkp file is actually a compressed file that must be expanded so that the individual files within it can be accessed? Maybe you must first use the Zip drive's Restore utility to expand the files, and then use Quicken's Restore function to find and restore the QDF and related files.

RC

I would also suggest exiting from Quicken and use Windows to open and list the files on the Zip drive. As others have mentioned, there are 2 things to observe.

#1 - there should be a "set" of 5 files with the same name, but with different extensions.... If not there - a PROBLEM Sala2002bkp.QDF Sala2002bkp.IDX Sala2002bkp.QEL Sala2002bkp.QSD Sala2002bkp.QPH

#2 - if you can't see the extensions, modify the folder settings to checkmark to "display file extensions" so you can see them

Then, we will all have a grasp of exactly which files are physically on the Zip drive, and what their extensions are....

BTW - that's the first thing I reset on almost any computer I touch, for displaying the file extensions...

I AM UP AND RUNNING. Thanks to all the folks who replied. I found that I had about five copies in different locations of the necessary set of files. When I recently upgraded to Win 98 SE, we thought I would have to reformat my C drive so I moved the backup copies to my second hard drive so I could remove Quicken as a program. We found that we could upgrade without reformating. For years, after doing a backup to the Zip drive, on the screen when I closed the program it would says something like it was doing a backup. it was doing a backup to the C drive! I don't know where in the program you set or unset that function. Anyway, my backup on the Zip drive was bad, but my original data iles that I moved from the Quicken program folder to the

Aga> > Here is some clarification. When I restore, the program want me to

Glad things are working for you.

BTW - I've had ZIP drives, both internal & external, and they go bad, with the "click of death", and then you are screwed. Just a warning....

I believe that Quicken stores 5 backup copies in your default data sub-dir with a "backup" sub-dir.... It does this as you exit Quicken. This would be in addition to any "manual" Quicken backups you create.