OPEN QUICKEN NO FILES

Posted by BIG BOY on March 19, 2008, 8:38 am

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Have Vista OS
Quicken 2008
Have to use the backup on a USB drive to use the Quicken files.
In the past no need to use the backup.

Posted by R. C. White on March 19, 2008, 9:58 am

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Hi, Big Boy.

Where do you WANT your Quicken files to be? Where did you put them before?

Your post is almost empty of details and we have to guess what you are
really asking. :>(

My guess is that you've OPENED your Backup file from that USB drive, rather
than Restored it from Backup. So Quicken now thinks that's the location for
the working copy of your file that it should use regularly. If that's
correct, then all you need to do is to Open it again and then use Backup to
put it back to where your working copy should be. Once you've done than,
then exit Quicken, use Windows Explorer to find that working copy, and click
on THAT .qdf file. It should open Quicken with that file loaded.
(Actually, of course, a Quicken "file" is a set of related files that
Quicken refers to as ONE file; loading the .qdf file gets the whole set.)
Once you've verified that your onscreen copy is, in fact, the version that
you expect and that it is current, use Backup again to put it onto that USB
drive once more. Finally, with your working copy still onscreen, simply
close Quicken as usual, either with the X in the corner or with File | Exit.
It will save the final current version of your file back into your new
chosen location, NOT onto the USB drive.

Next time you click on the Quicken icon from your Start menu, it should
start with your working copy loaded. Each time you decide to do a manual
Backup, be sure that the destination folder is on that USB drive or wherever
you want your backup - NOT your working copy - to be.

Normally, once Quicken is up and running with our own data loaded, we never
have to use the File | Open command again. Quicken just remembers where it
put our default file last time and opens that automatically each time we
start Quicken. If we use more than one Quicken file (keeping the books for
our Grandma or our church or some other entity, separate from our own
finances), things are not quite so simple, but for most of us, we never need
to remind Quicken where to find our files after our initial setup.

If I've guessed wrong about what you really are asking, please post back
with a clear statement of your question.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.)
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Quicken 2008 Deluxe in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

> Have Vista OS

> Quicken 2008

> Have to use the backup on a USB drive to use the Quicken files.

> In the past no need to use the backup.

Posted by nanox2000 on March 26, 2008, 11:34 pm

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Hi, you seem really helpful and I have a situation I could really use
help with!

I'd like to get some information from Quicken on my old XP computer
onto my new MAC.

I realize Quicken Windows and MAC are different and require a fairly
intricate migration under ideal circumstances.

My circumstances are not ideal, as the XP computer is dead and I'm
accessing the hard drive direct via USB from my MAC.

Also, I never exported or backed anything up while using Quicken in
Windows.

I can view the Quicken folder, but obviously I can't run it. I was
hoping there would be an obvious filename, for example my account name
or something, but there is not.

The good news is I used Quicken for EXTREMELY basic operations, to
keep track of how much money in, out, for what, and when. In other
words, I never left the simple, main page accounting ledger or did any
computations or anything (aside from the balance it calculates
automatically).

I think/hope this simple information is somehow viewable -- even in a
messy text file I could put it together and that would be great.

I've tried opening some .dat files with text viewer in MAC but they
come up blank.

Is there any way I can retrieve this information in any format?

Posted by R. C. White on March 27, 2008, 9:14 am

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Hi, nanox2000.

Are you talking to me? You didn't say "Hi, RC" or anything like that, so
I'm just guessing.

> I'd like to get some information from Quicken on my old XP computer

> onto my new MAC.

MAC? What's that? I'm joking, of course, but only partly. I know NOTHING
about the Mac, except little bits that I read here and there.

> Also, I never exported or backed anything up while using Quicken in

> Windows.

The good news is that you DO have at least one backup if you used Quicken in
Windows for more than a week or so. Find your *.qdf file; it should be up
to date as of the last time you actually used Quicken. If you didn't assign
a different name, it will be QDATA.QDF. There may be some related files
with the same name and different extensions, like QDATA.QEL, QDATA.IDX,
etc., depending on how YOU use Quicken; since you said you use it only
minimally, there may be only a couple of these. These related files make up
what we often call a "fileset", but Quicken calls the whole group "a Quicken
file". When Quicken copies or otherwise handles these files, it deals with
the whole set; when we use other Windows tools, such as Copy, we must
remember to include the full set, like QDATA.*. You probably don't need any
.dat files; Quicken will probably rebuild any of these that it needs.

Wherever you find that .qdf file, there should be a BACKUP subfolder. In
that BACKUP folder, you should find a series of Quicken filesets, dated a
week apart. If you used the default filename of QDATA, the latest of these
sets will be named QDATA1; earlier sets will be QDATA2, QDATA3, etc., with
the oldest probably QDATA5.

While I haven't dealt with Quicken for the Mac, my guess is that you will
need at least one full set of these files. The best one should be the
current QDATA.* file set; QDATA1.* would be next best, etc. As long as you
are moving one file from the PC to the Mac, you might as well move them all
if you have room on the Mac. And, of course, as soon as you get them onto
the Mac, BACK THEM UP somewhere safe so that you don't have to do all this
again!

I hope this helps. If not, post back and one of the Mac users here should
be able to give you some REAL help.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.)
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Quicken 2008 Deluxe in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

> Hi, you seem really helpful and I have a situation I could really use

> help with!

> I'd like to get some information from Quicken on my old XP computer

> onto my new MAC.

> I realize Quicken Windows and MAC are different and require a fairly

> intricate migration under ideal circumstances.

> My circumstances are not ideal, as the XP computer is dead and I'm

> accessing the hard drive direct via USB from my MAC.

> Also, I never exported or backed anything up while using Quicken in

> Windows.

> I can view the Quicken folder, but obviously I can't run it. I was

> hoping there would be an obvious filename, for example my account name

> or something, but there is not.

> The good news is I used Quicken for EXTREMELY basic operations, to

> keep track of how much money in, out, for what, and when. In other

> words, I never left the simple, main page accounting ledger or did any

> computations or anything (aside from the balance it calculates

> automatically).

> I think/hope this simple information is somehow viewable -- even in a

> messy text file I could put it together and that would be great.

> I've tried opening some .dat files with text viewer in MAC but they

> come up blank.

> Is there any way I can retrieve this information in any format?

Posted by Han on March 28, 2008, 6:34 am

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nanox2000@gmail.com wrote in news:2e9a5dcd-39b8-4bd1-9474-
0b49aa4ea7eb@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

> Oddly I could not find a QDATA.QDF file, any .qdf files at all, or any

> "backup" directory. I certainly used it for over a week though! A

> couple years? I searched myself and with the auto "finder," but I

> copied and pasted the list of files here anyway in case I'm totally

> nuts, missed it, or it might be of use.

If you used Quicken on the old computer, than some kind of drive on that
machine has the qdf and associated files that together make up the
Quicken file set. The listing of files you supplied look like the
program directory. For you now that is as useful as a completely empty
Formula 1 racetrack. What you want is the car, i.e. the Quicken file
set. I got confused looking at earlier posts in this thread, where
several people seemed to be posting with problems, including one who had
his Quicken files on a memory stick/thumbdrive. Those are the files you
want - if the qdf s not on the hard drive, then go find it somewhere
else, whereever you saved your data, or a backup of the data.

NOTE:
I have never converted Quicken for PC data to Mac compatible data, and if
I were to get a MAc (unlikely at this point) I likely would install
Windows on my Mac so as to get the capabilities of PC Quicken, which I
understand are superior to Mac Quicken.

--
Best regards
Han
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