From: Ken Blake on
I installed Q2010 a few days ago, and I have a question about the
backup files it creates.

I last backed up yesterday. In the backup folder there is still an
Attach folder and the following files with their dates:

QDATA.IDX 5/10/2009
QDATA.NPC 8/2/1999
QDATA.QDF 2/7/2010
QDATA.QDF-backup 2/12/2010
QDATA.QEL 2/7/2010
QDATA.QPH 2/7/2010
QDATA.QTX 7/5/2004

Can someone tell me which of these files are current, and which (if
any) are old and no longer needed as part of the current backup? Do I
need to keep nothing but the Attach folder and the QDATA.QDF-backup
file?


--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: Han on
Ken Blake <kblake(a)this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in
news:oltdn5ts81bvtu6uoct1nase8q6fhmb1g8(a)4ax.com:

> I installed Q2010 a few days ago, and I have a question about the
> backup files it creates.
>
> I last backed up yesterday. In the backup folder there is still an
> Attach folder and the following files with their dates:
>
> QDATA.IDX 5/10/2009
> QDATA.NPC 8/2/1999
> QDATA.QDF 2/7/2010
> QDATA.QDF-backup 2/12/2010
> QDATA.QEL 2/7/2010
> QDATA.QPH 2/7/2010
> QDATA.QTX 7/5/2004
>
> Can someone tell me which of these files are current, and which (if
> any) are old and no longer needed as part of the current backup? Do I
> need to keep nothing but the Attach folder and the QDATA.QDF-backup
> file?
>
>
The qdata.qdf could/should be the file with the current data, but may be
an older backup. The qdata.qdf-backup is a backup file (as of
yesterday). I would predict that there is also a qdata.qdf file
somewhere with yesterdays date.

The other files are backups from a previous versino of Quicken, I
believe.

Now (with Q10) Quicken saves all the data in 1 file named something.qdf.


--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid
From: Ken Blake on
On 13 Feb 2010 19:17:44 GMT, Han <nobody(a)nospam.not> wrote:

> Ken Blake <kblake(a)this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in
> news:oltdn5ts81bvtu6uoct1nase8q6fhmb1g8(a)4ax.com:
>
> > I installed Q2010 a few days ago, and I have a question about the
> > backup files it creates.
> >
> > I last backed up yesterday. In the backup folder there is still an
> > Attach folder and the following files with their dates:
> >
> > QDATA.IDX 5/10/2009
> > QDATA.NPC 8/2/1999
> > QDATA.QDF 2/7/2010
> > QDATA.QDF-backup 2/12/2010
> > QDATA.QEL 2/7/2010
> > QDATA.QPH 2/7/2010
> > QDATA.QTX 7/5/2004
> >
> > Can someone tell me which of these files are current, and which (if
> > any) are old and no longer needed as part of the current backup? Do I
> > need to keep nothing but the Attach folder and the QDATA.QDF-backup
> > file?
> >
> >
> The qdata.qdf could/should be the file with the current data,


No, the date makes that not possible. That's the date when I installed
Q2010. And the current data should be in the \Quicken Data folder, not
in the \Quicken Backup folder.


> but may be
> an older backup.


It must be.


> The qdata.qdf-backup is a backup file (as of
> yesterday).



That's what I thought and was asking about. So is that and the Attach
folder all I need to keep in this backup folder?


> I would predict that there is also a qdata.qdf file
> somewhere with yesterdays date.


Sure--the actual file used, in \Quicken Data. There's also another in
\Quicken Data\Q09 files, dated 2/7, which I assume is the backup of
the Quicken 09 data that was automatically made when I installed
Q2010.


> The other files are backups from a previous versino of Quicken, I
> believe.


Good. So what I hoped was the case, that I need to keep nothing here
but the qdata.qdf-backup file and the Attach folder is correct?



> Now (with Q10) Quicken saves all the data in 1 file named something.qdf.


That's what I thought, but I was looking for verification of that, and
making sure that my understanding of what each of the files was is
correct.

Thanks very much.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: John Pollard on
Ken Blake wrote:
> On 13 Feb 2010 19:17:44 GMT, Han <nobody(a)nospam.not> wrote:
>
>> Ken Blake <kblake(a)this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in
>> news:oltdn5ts81bvtu6uoct1nase8q6fhmb1g8(a)4ax.com:
>>
>>> I installed Q2010 a few days ago, and I have a question about the
>>> backup files it creates.
>>>
>>> I last backed up yesterday. In the backup folder there is still an
>>> Attach folder and the following files with their dates:
>>>
>>> QDATA.IDX 5/10/2009
>>> QDATA.NPC 8/2/1999
>>> QDATA.QDF 2/7/2010
>>> QDATA.QDF-backup 2/12/2010
>>> QDATA.QEL 2/7/2010
>>> QDATA.QPH 2/7/2010
>>> QDATA.QTX 7/5/2004
>>>
>>> Can someone tell me which of these files are current, and which (if
>>> any) are old and no longer needed as part of the current backup? Do
>>> I need to keep nothing but the Attach folder and the
>>> QDATA.QDF-backup file?
>>>
>>>
>> The qdata.qdf could/should be the file with the current data,
>
>
> No, the date makes that not possible. That's the date when I installed
> Q2010. And the current data should be in the \Quicken Data folder, not
> in the \Quicken Backup folder.
>
>
>> but may be
>> an older backup.
>
>
> It must be.
>
>
>> The qdata.qdf-backup is a backup file (as of
>> yesterday).
>
>
>
> That's what I thought and was asking about. So is that and the Attach
> folder all I need to keep in this backup folder?
>
>
>> I would predict that there is also a qdata.qdf file
>> somewhere with yesterdays date.
>
>
> Sure--the actual file used, in \Quicken Data. There's also another in
> \Quicken Data\Q09 files, dated 2/7, which I assume is the backup of
> the Quicken 09 data that was automatically made when I installed
> Q2010.
>
>
>> The other files are backups from a previous versino of Quicken, I
>> believe.
>
>
> Good. So what I hoped was the case, that I need to keep nothing here
> but the qdata.qdf-backup file and the Attach folder is correct?
>
>
>
>> Now (with Q10) Quicken saves all the data in 1 file named
>> something.qdf.
>
>
> That's what I thought, but I was looking for verification of that, and
> making sure that my understanding of what each of the files was is
> correct.

Q2010 has only one Quicken file ... the one with the .QDF extension. That
file contains *everything*; including your attachments ... so you do not
need any other file or any other folder.

[You didn't say what the file dates you posted represented, so just to
clarify: the Windows Quicken file "date created" is not the pertinent date
.... it's the Windows "date modified".]

--

John Pollard
news://<YOUR-NNTP-NEWSERVER-HERE>/alt.comp.software.financial.quicken
Your source of user-to-user Quicken help




From: R. C. White on
Hi, Ken.

Q2010 originally had a backup scheme that seemed bizarre to me - and to some
other long-time users here!

Not only did the new all-in-one QDF file jump from about 32 MB to over 70 MB
for me, but Q2010 was automatically backing up the file several times a day,
and creating a new file each time! Gigabytes of disk space was being
gobbled up at a prodigious rate - and my own manual backups were gobbling up
even more. Something clearly demanded fixing - FAST!

Intuit did make some significant fixes quickly; in Release 3 as I recall,
but I'm too lazy to look it up. Now my automatic backups are about 47 MB
for each file. I've updated as soon as each Release appeared and now am
running Release R 5.

The automatic backup filenames also changed with the later Release(s).
Rather than the simple 8.3 filename - which I limited to 6.3 to allow for
the automatic backup to append a numeral - we now have a name of about 25.10
(about a 25 character filename plus 10-character extension). :>( There are
now TEN automatic backups in my E:\QuickenW\BACKUP folder, even though my
Preferences are set to FIVE copies (and to back up after running Quicken 5
times); the latest automatic backup filename in BACKUP is:
qdata-2010-02-13.PM12.58.QDF-backup

That filename is informative, showing that it was automatically backed up at
12:58 pm today, but it is clumsier to work with. And the several periods in
the filename can be confusing, especially for those who don't realize that
there is only ONE actual extension; the first two periods are part of the
date/time format. QDF-backup is the extension.

Q2010 is still nonchalant about the consumption of disk space. Those 10
automatic backups take almost 500 MB on my hard disk. They all are dated in
2010: on 1/22, 1/26, 1/28, 1/29, 1/31, 2/2, 2/4, 2/7, 2/10 and today,
2/13/2010.

In addition to the automatic backups, I also make a manual backup several
times a day. The box to "Add date and time to backup file name" is NOT
checked. And I always click to "Yes, Overwrite Existing", so I have only a
single manual backup file, in addition to the 5 (or 10) automatic backups.
In my opinion, Backups are not the same as Archives; one good backup is all
we really need, and we need it only long enough to confirm that the current
working copy is safe and good.

I do have a few more redundant backup files, but I think that Q2010
automatically makes just the ones in the BACKUP folder, and that each
automatic backup consists of just the single large file with a very long
name and the .QDF-backup extension.

So, all your files with .QEL, QTX, etc., extensions must be for Quicken
versions prior to Q2010. Whether you delete them - or archive them - is up
to you, but I don't think that Q2010 cares about them at all.

And my current working Quicken folder has just 3 data files:
2/13/10 qdata.QDF 47 MB
2/13/10 qdataOFXLOG.DAT .5 MB
2/10/10 qdataOFXOLD.DAT .5 MB

I've used ATTACH very sparingly, and apparently not at all so far with
Q2010, so I don't know about the contents of that folder.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.)
rc(a)grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Using Quicken Deluxe 2010 and Windows Live Mail in Win7 x64)

"Ken Blake" <kblake(a)this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
news:oltdn5ts81bvtu6uoct1nase8q6fhmb1g8(a)4ax.com...
> I installed Q2010 a few days ago, and I have a question about the
> backup files it creates.
>
> I last backed up yesterday. In the backup folder there is still an
> Attach folder and the following files with their dates:
>
> QDATA.IDX 5/10/2009
> QDATA.NPC 8/2/1999
> QDATA.QDF 2/7/2010
> QDATA.QDF-backup 2/12/2010
> QDATA.QEL 2/7/2010
> QDATA.QPH 2/7/2010
> QDATA.QTX 7/5/2004
>
> Can someone tell me which of these files are current, and which (if
> any) are old and no longer needed as part of the current backup? Do I
> need to keep nothing but the Attach folder and the QDATA.QDF-backup
> file?
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup