Problem backing up - QWin 2001 - "Unable to write to drive"

MikeM58

I use Quicken 2001 (yeah, I'm a dinosaur, but it works) for my home budget. I religiously back it up every time I do it. It has never been a problem until yesterday. I back it up to a USB stick. Yesterday I went to do it and got a "Unable to write to drive" message. I've never gotten this before and I had not changed any settings. I use Windows 10. I checked all my permissions on Quicken and Windows and they are set for all users to have full access, and I did try to back it up to other sticks and a second hard drive and got the same message.
Anyone else have this problem? If so, how did you remedy it? I am about out of ideas.

Thanks

NotACPA

Could it be that you USB was, simply, full ... and didn't have room for another backup?

If so, simply delete some of the very old backups.

Ps56k2

NotACPA said: Could it be that you USB was, simply, full ...

... and I did try to back it up to other sticks and a second hard drive and got the same message.

MikeM58

Yeah, I got over 900 mb open on that stick. But, thanks for the reply

Ps56k2

how about backup to the local drive - and then use Windows File Explorer to Copy / Paste to the USB ?

any probs just copying files to the USB with Windows File Explorer ?

[EDIT] - also updated topic title to better reflect actual Q&A - might do a Search for any other "write to drive" postings

UKR

Have you stopped Quicken without completing the backup, then rebooted Windows and tried Quicken again?

How many backup files are on the USB drive?
Are the files stored on the root folder of the USB drive, i.e., X:\filename.typ
or are they stored in a subfolder, e.g., X:\QBackup\filename.typ ?
I'm thinking about potential FAT16 file system compatibility issues while running on a new version of Windows and newer file systems with old 16bit code ...

If you are using the US version of Q 2001 (this won't work on the Canadian or other international versions of Q), consider carefully upgrading your Quicken software to at least Quicken Deluxe 2013 US. The following procedure describes what needs to be done and provides you with a free software installation file of Q Deluxe 2013:

How and When to Use an Intermediate Version To Convert Older Versions of Quicken

http://www.quicken.com/support/how-and-when-use-intermediate-version-convert-older-versions-quicken

Warning: if you use the computer which currently has Q 2001 installed to perform this conversion process, you won't have a fallback method available should something go wrong with one of the file conversion steps. Recommend you use a different computer, preferably one that runs Windows 8.1 or 7 to run the procedure. When done successfully, install Q 2013 on your current computer (replacing Q 2001 in the process), restore a converted-to-2013 backup data file from the other computer and proceed.

MikeM58

To respond to both posts, I can't back it up anywhere, tried on a different usb drive and a slave hard drive. Same thing. I wouldn't trust just the copy and paste thing because I don't know exactly what files are backed up. Since it is sensitive financial information, I would have to trust that it would successfully repopulate Quicken if my computer crashes and I have to re-install Quicken.

To answer the 2nd response, there are several, each with a different number, from different operating systems. Currently, when backed up, I believe it would be backed up under F:\quicken\backup\quicken11, or something like that. I've been running on Win 10 for a while, in fact, I last backed it up on 7/24 and it went through fine. So, in my mind, something changed in the last two weeks. Just a matter of figuring out what.
Thanks for your replies.

UKR

I really don't know what's going on inside your old Q 2001 version.
In more recent versions, when you get a problem creating the backup (error message "Backup file not created"), it's because your active Quicken data file has been damaged to some extent and needs to be repaired first. This is usually done by selecting File / File Operations / Validate.
Do you have this capability in your old version?

Failing that, do you have a recent backup that you can restore (to a file name different from the active name)? Can you backup that restored file without problems?

I hope you're not hitting a file size limitation built into the old Quicken that it cannot properly identify and recover from ... if that were the case, upgrading to Q 2004, then Q 2013 would be the only way out of that hole. Newer versions can handle larger file sizes.

MikeM58

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it appears I have that on mine. My most recent backup was 2 weeks ago. I think what I will do is, manually write down all my transactions since the last back up, then try the validate thing. If it messes something up, I still have the back up and recent data.
I will let you know how it goes.

MikeM58

Okay, did the validate thing, didn't change anything. I opened my most recent backed up one off my usb stick and it opened fine, but when I went to back it up, same thing. What's curious to me is, if I go to open a file, it shows all of my saved files on my USB stick, but when I go to back them up, it doesn't show any of them, jus the back up folder.