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Subject Author Date
Number of Backup Copies SP 08-09-2006
Posted by John Pollard on August 12, 2006, 9:44 pm
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> Hi. Interesting thread. I find that the backups in my case
> are in My Documents/Quicken/Backups. Per your post, that's
> not the default. I rarely override program installation
> defaults these days, so I'm wondering if (my current version)
> Q2005P automatically chose this path based on what the prior
> installation (Q2001D) had done? I don't see any option to
> change it within Preferences. (I assume I could do so by
> tweaking the registry.) The automatic backups appear to be
> generating normally (I've chosen 5 copies), per the discussion
> in this thread. I'd appreciate hearing if anyone sees any
> potential danger in this directory structure.
>
> Incidentally, my current installation is in C:QUICKENW . It
> has many subfolders, but none labeled BACKUP. This probably
> dates back to Q6. There is no path C:Program FilesQuicken.

[R.C. Sorry to step in here, but sometimes I just can't resist.]

Quicken ALWAYS creates its automatic backups in a folder named
BACKUP that is in the same folder where the Quicken data file
you have open when the automatic backup occurs is located.
ALWAYS. WITHOUT FAIL. There is no doubt about how this works.
R.C. was right from the get go; and he carefully pointed out the
same thing I am saying.

As an example: I guarantee that you have zero Quicken automatic
backups in any folder anywhere on your pc that is named
"Backups" (unless you moved them there). NOT A SINGLE ONE.
GUARENTEED.

Spend more time reading for comprehension and less time thinking
you are going to point out other's mistakes.



Posted by Ron on August 13, 2006, 1:28 am
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> As an example: I guarantee that you have zero Quicken automatic backups in
> any folder anywhere on your pc that is named "Backups" (unless you moved
> them there). NOT A SINGLE ONE. GUARENTEED.

Correct. I mistakenly pluralized the folder. Sorry.

>
> Spend more time reading for comprehension and less time thinking you are
> going to point out other's mistakes.
>

Excuse me? I was looking for a little advice, not thinking anyone had made
a "mistake." I misquoted the backup directory by making "BACKUP" plural.
Otherwise, it's exactly as I said, and there is no contradiction with what
you say. The data file set is in ....My DocumentsQuicken and the 5 sets of
backup files are all in ....My DocumentsQuickenBACKUP. My point was
simply that the executable is in one directory branch, and the data are in
another. (My comprehension quotient may not be equal to yours, but I think
I know how to explore for directory paths.)

I believe the QUICKENW branch was created by Q6 - years ago - and subsequent
upgrades have simply installed over it. Maybe there was a "My Documents"
folder when Q6 came out, I don't remember. If not, I don't know how the
data got separated from the executable branch. My question now is "Does it
matter?" On reflection, since I've upgraded from Q6 at least twice, and use
Q2005P every day with no problem, I guess not.


Posted by John Pollard on August 13, 2006, 8:25 am
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>> As an example: I guarantee that you have zero Quicken
>> automatic backups in any folder anywhere on your pc that is
>> named "Backups" (unless you moved them there). NOT A SINGLE
>> ONE. GUARENTEED.

> Correct. I mistakenly pluralized the folder. Sorry.

And used lower case.

>> Spend more time reading for comprehension and less time
>> thinking you are going to point out other's mistakes.
>>

> Excuse me? I was looking for a little advice, not thinking
> anyone had made a "mistake." I misquoted the backup directory
> by making "BACKUP" plural. Otherwise, it's exactly as I said,
> and there is no contradiction with what you say. The data
> file set is in ....My DocumentsQuicken and the 5 sets of
> backup files are all in ....My DocumentsQuickenBACKUP. My
> point was simply that the executable is in one directory
> branch, and the data are in another. (My comprehension
> quotient may not be equal to yours, but I think I know how to
> explore for directory paths.)
>
> I believe the QUICKENW branch was created by Q6 - years ago -
> and subsequent upgrades have simply installed over it. Maybe
> there was a "My Documents" folder when Q6 came out, I don't
> remember. If not, I don't know how the data got separated
> from the executable branch. My question now is "Does it
> matter?" On reflection, since I've upgraded from Q6 at least
> twice, and use Q2005P every day with no problem, I guess not.

As I said, the folder where Quicken puts its automatic backups
is always located in the folder of the file Quicken is
automatically backing up, and is always named BACKUP. So if
your BACKUP folder is in My DocumentsQuicken, so is your
regular Quicken fileset.

It was never (since at least Q2000 anyway) a requirement that
the Quicken data had to be in the same folder as the executable,
and I don't think it is a good idea to have it there.



Posted by R. C. White on August 12, 2006, 10:05 pm
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Hi, Ron.

(And thanks for jumping in, John. I was in the middle of drafting this when
I saw your post appear and, as you can see, I'm invoking your name in this
message, anyhow. ;<) )

It sounds like your Quicken installations have resulted in a tangled mess.
:>( I'm not sure I have all the answers, but here are a few thoughts.

The only time we can decide where to put Quicken is during the installation.
Setup proposes a location, but we can change it (and I always change mine to
E:QuickenW). It always proposes a location on whichever volume (primary
partition or logical drive) is specified by the environment variable
SystemDrive. In almost all cases, especially for the typical user who has
only a single "drive", this is Drive C:. The default location is into the
Program Files folder. For a new installation of Quicken, it creates a
subfolder named Quicken. So the typical path is C:Program Files Quicken.
There is no way that Preferences can control this. And trying to change it
manually in the Registry is inviting disaster!

If we are upgrading a previous Quicken installation, the default location is
into the same folder as the prior installation. So, once we've selected a
location, future upgrades will go into the same place IF we are "upgrading".
But, as I recall, this has not always been the case. Quicken's behavior in
this regard has changed over the years. John Pollard is more familiar with
this, but I think we could, a few years ago, install a new Quicken into a
new location without deleting the old version. This might explain why you
have Quicken (and QuickenW) folders in both My DocumentsQuicken and
C:QuickenW.

As I recall, the QuickenW folder name came into being long ago (early
1990's?) to distinguish the then-new Windows version of Quicken from the
MS-DOS version that had been the norm up to that point.

Which qw.exe actually runs when you start Quicken, Ron? You can look at the
Properties of your desktop icon, if that's how you start Quicken. Or change
the name of qw.exe to qw.xxx (or some other name of your choice) in either
My Documents or C:QuickenW and see if the program still runs. Either way,
that should tell you which is the REAL Quicken on your computer and which is
the imposter. From your description, I suspect that My Documents holds the
real Quicken, but please check to be sure. The name of the backup folder
would be "BACKUP", not "Backups".

Once you've identified the real Quicken, you should find the BACKUP folder
there, and it should have your backup copies in it, named QDATA1, etc., as I
explained to Caryl, and dated currently. The imposter Quicken may or may
not have such a folder, but any files in it should be very stale-dated. As
soon as you have verified that it is an outdated folder, delete its entire
tree.

Then, to eliminate future confusion, I would suggest that you use Add or
Remove Programs to delete Quicken; if there are multiple installations,
delete them all. Then install your current version (Q2005P?) into your
chosen location (C:QuickenW ?) Naturally, you should make a manual backup
of your current Quicken fileset into a safe location beforehand and then
Open it (or Restore it) in your new installation.

(If you have further ideas, John, feel free... )

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
(Retired - no longer licensed to practice)
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net

> Hi. Interesting thread. I find that the backups in my case are in My
> Documents/Quicken/Backups. Per your post, that's not the default. I
> rarely override program installation defaults these days, so I'm wondering
> if (my current version) Q2005P automatically chose this path based on what
> the prior installation (Q2001D) had done? I don't see any option to
> change it within Preferences. (I assume I could do so by tweaking the
> registry.) The automatic backups appear to be generating normally (I've
> chosen 5 copies), per the discussion in this thread. I'd appreciate
> hearing if anyone sees any potential danger in this directory structure.
>
> Incidentally, my current installation is in C:QUICKENW . It has many
> subfolders, but none labeled BACKUP. This probably dates back to Q6.
> There is no path C:Program FilesQuicken.
>
> Thx, Ron
>
>>
>> Are you sure you are looking the RIGHT backup folder? You may have a
>> dozen folders with that name scattered around your hard drive. The only
>> one that matters here is C:Program FilesQuickenBACKUP, assuming you
>> accepted the default when you installed Quicken.


Posted by Ron on August 13, 2006, 1:52 am
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Hi RC, Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Responses below.

> Hi, Ron.
>
> (And thanks for jumping in, John. I was in the middle of drafting this
> when I saw your post appear and, as you can see, I'm invoking your name in
> this message, anyhow. ;<) )
>
> It sounds like your Quicken installations have resulted in a tangled mess.
> :>( I'm not sure I have all the answers, but here are a few thoughts.

RC, I'm sorry that I misquoted the backup folder as pluralized. It is not.
I don't think I have a tangled mess, just two branches, one with the
executable and the other with the data and the appropriate subfolder BACKUP.

>
> The only time we can decide where to put Quicken is during the
> installation. Setup proposes a location, but we can change it (and I
> always change mine to E:QuickenW). It always proposes a location on
> whichever volume (primary partition or logical drive) is specified by the
> environment variable SystemDrive. In almost all cases, especially for the
> typical user who has only a single "drive", this is Drive C:. The default
> location is into the Program Files folder. For a new installation of
> Quicken, it creates a subfolder named Quicken. So the typical path is
> C:Program Files Quicken. There is no way that Preferences can control
> this. And trying to change it manually in the Registry is inviting
> disaster!
>
> If we are upgrading a previous Quicken installation, the default location
> is into the same folder as the prior installation. So, once we've
> selected a location, future upgrades will go into the same place IF we are
> "upgrading".

That's what I was guessing. It appears to be what's happened in my case.

> But, as I recall, this has not always been the case. Quicken's behavior
> in this regard has changed over the years. John Pollard is more familiar
> with this, but I think we could, a few years ago, install a new Quicken
> into a new location without deleting the old version. This might explain
> why you have Quicken (and QuickenW) folders in both My DocumentsQuicken
> and C:QuickenW.

Only the data are in the former. Only the executable is in the latter.

>
> As I recall, the QuickenW folder name came into being long ago (early
> 1990's?) to distinguish the then-new Windows version of Quicken from the
> MS-DOS version that had been the norm up to that point.
>
> Which qw.exe actually runs when you start Quicken, Ron?

There's only one. (I've searched the entire drive.) As mentioned, it's in
C:QuickenW

> You can look at the Properties of your desktop icon, if that's how you
> start Quicken. Or change the name of qw.exe to qw.xxx (or some other name
> of your choice) in either My Documents or C:QuickenW and see if the
> program still runs. Either way, that should tell you which is the REAL
> Quicken on your computer and which is the imposter. From your
> description, I suspect that My Documents holds the real Quicken, but
> please check to be sure. The name of the backup folder would be "BACKUP",
> not "Backups".
>
> Once you've identified the real Quicken, you should find the BACKUP folder
> there, and it should have your backup copies in it, named QDATA1, etc., as
> I explained to Caryl, and dated currently.

No, it's simply not true. The data are in ....My DocumentsQuicken . I
have double checked this by opening and closing the program and checking the
"Date Modified" column. The five sets of backups are in the subfolder
...My DocumentsQuickenBACKUP .

> The imposter Quicken may or may not have such a folder, but any files in
> it should be very stale-dated. As soon as you have verified that it is an
> outdated folder, delete its entire tree.
>
> Then, to eliminate future confusion, I would suggest that you use Add or
> Remove Programs to delete Quicken; if there are multiple installations,
> delete them all. Then install your current version (Q2005P?) into your
> chosen location (C:QuickenW ?) Naturally, you should make a manual
> backup of your current Quicken fileset into a safe location beforehand and
> then Open it (or Restore it) in your new installation.
>
> (If you have further ideas, John, feel free... )
>

I'm afraid my typo has created a lot of confusion. I apologize for that.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. -Ron


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