How did my Quicken entries, personal and business get wiped clean from my computer.

indycolts

Over 15 years of personal financial entries and 6 years of business financial entries are now gone from my computer. Several weeks ago, I encountered a problem and made what I think was an ill-advised call to an alleged Microsoft Help number. After that call was completed my Quicken was functioning fine. This past week while on a trip I received a call from home telling me that my desktop computer once again was encountering the same issue dealt with before. I instructed that the computer be powered off by pulling the plug because any attempt to power the computer down was being overridden. Once i returned from trip I discovered that Quicken on my computer is just a program waiting to be started as though it was just purchased.

Ps56k2

@indycolts - So many moving parts to your story....

As far as Quicken -
1 - Can you start the Quicken program ?
2 - Can you open a Quicken QDF file - they are usually stored at  --> /Documents/Quicken/  ?
3 - Can you see any backup files in the folder --> Documents/Quicken/Backup/

Jim_Harman

All of your Quicken data is in a file with an extension of .QDF. The default name for this file is QDATA.QDF, but your file may have a different name. Normally this is in the Quicken folder inside your Documents folder, but again it may be somewhere else on your system.

You don't describe the nature of your original problem, but if Quicken was uninstalled and reinstalled, you may need to find your data file and double click on that to access your data. If in doubt I suggest you contact genuine Quicken Support for more assistance. 

Do not Google "Quicken support," that may lead you to a bogus support site. Inside the Quicken program, select Help and then Contact support for contact information. For customers with a current Quicken subscription, support is always free.

Ps56k2

indycolts said:  Several weeks ago, I encountered a problem and made what I think was an ill-advised call to an alleged Microsoft Help number.

What kind of problem ?
1 - where did you get that number for Microsoft Help ?
2 - did they charge you ?
3 - did they have remote access to your computer ?
4 - did they instruct you to go to a special website for the "fix" ?
5 - any other stuff - that now seems a little bogus ?

indycolts

Quicken program will start and is prompting me with a Get Started page. The only QDF file I appear to have available is one created yesterday that is for the Get Started page. Any backup files I see are dated for yesterday or today and appear to be the Get Started page only. The other confusing piece to this is my Western Digital external hard drive is not allowing me to see the years' worth of files that were backed up to that device.

Jim_Harman

If you use Windows Explorer to look at the files on you external drive, what do you see? An empty drive? An error message? Gibberish?

It is possible that the bogus support site you visited wiped or encrypted your drive.

Boatnmaniac

If you have not already done so, go to File > Find Quicken Files.  If your original QDF file(s) are located anywhere else on your hard drive this process should quickly find it.

If you find it located elsewhere on your hard drive you can then try to open it with Quicken.

indycolts

The phone number popped on screen as part of the warning I was receiving. I was not charged but during our conversation when I asked that question there was mention there would be a charge for clearing my computer of the issue I was encountering. Thought it was odd that they freed computer up and that was end of conversation without pursuing payment. That's the part that to me seemed bogus, as well as background chatter I could hear of other "techs" having literally an identical conversation with other people. Yes, they did take remote control of my computer which is almost certainly where I messed up.

indycolts

I've been scouring what I can see on the external drive quite a bit. There are files there, I've even found scanned receipts. That external drive has 50 gigs of space used, that isn't all photos. Retrospect Backup is the folder name where prompted Quicken backups were placed. They are not there.

Boatnmaniac

indycolts said:

The phone number popped on screen as part of the warning I was receiving. I was not charged but during our conversation when I asked that question there was mention there would be a charge for clearing my computer of the issue I was encountering. Thought it was odd that they freed computer up and that was end of conversation without pursuing payment. That's the part that to me seemed bogus, as well as background chatter I could hear of other "techs" having literally an identical conversation with other people. Yes, they did take remote control of my computer which is almost certainly where I messed up.

I would suggest that before you do anything else you run a deep anti-malware scan.  Make sure your scan(s) include anti-virus, anti-hijacking, anti-ransomware, anti-everything.  You might have contacted a legitimate MS help group but what you've stated just doesn't sit right with me....especially that bit about getting a popup with a phone number.  Popups like that are often an indication that you encountered some sort of malware and it was directing you to call an unverified number.   I hope I'm wrong but it just doesn't smell right at all.

indycolts

The problem began when going to Disney+ on desktop computer. Started receiving several pop-up warnings that my computer was now locked because someone allegedly used my IP address to access sites where they shouldn't be going. That's where the phone number appeared. Then this past week without anyone sitting at the computer the same series of pop-ups began along with the digital recording which is what got my wife's attention prompting her to call me. During the original call I made it was explained to me that I had clicked on a link that was improperly formatted which led me to the warnings.

indycolts

Thanks for the replies...got a feeling this computer will have to be taken to professionals in order to be looked at.

Boatnmaniac

Most good anti-virus programs will be able to run the deep/complete scans for most if not all of these things but you might need to configure yours to make sure it will do the most complete scan available.  Many AV programs will default during setup to scan only what they say are "the most likely places" that malware might be located.  They do this because the deep/complete scans can tie up a lot of memory and CPU resources greatly slowing down the computer (only while the scan is taking place).  I will usually just start the scan and walk away from the computer for a couple of hours until the scan completes.

After I do a deep/complete AV scan I also like to run Malwarebytes.  It can sometimes find and elimiate issues that a more traditional AV program might miss.  You can download Malwarebytes for free from www.malwarebytes.com and get a free trial use.

If you run these scans and nothing comes up then perhaps your system is not compromised (let's hope) and you won't need to incur the cost of engaging a professional to fix it.   

As far as finding your missing QDF file(s):  If you have not already done so, go to File > Find Quicken Files.  If it is on your hard drive this should find it.  You should also be able to use it to find your backup files on your external WD drive.  It's pretty fast and very easy to use.

ChicagoGuy

You also need protect yourself these days against fake support scammers, malware and ransomware attacks. Invest in a cloud based continuous backup service if you have important data you want to protect