Problem restoring from external hard drive.

NV-VT

Quicken Premiere for PC R53.32 build 27.1.53.32

I routinely back up Quicken files to an external hard drive when prompted, about every 5 days. Last such backup was Jan 11, 2024. On Jan 12 something went haywire with entries related to transfers between investment files and bank accounts producing seriously wrong balances in three such accounts. I was unable to locate or fix the problem using “validate / repair.”

So I followed the Quicken help script routine for restoring, assuming it was easy because the last backup was only a day old. But when prompted to locate the most recent backup file using either the “automatic” backup, or the “browse” for backups, the display only showed Dec 20, 2023 as the most recent backup. Searched community posts for help but none on point.

I bailed out of the Q restore routine, closed Quicken and used PC file explorer to navigate to the external hard drive which clearly showed backups Jan 11, Jan 6, Jan 1, 2023, December 26 and Dec 20, 2023. After quite some time and several attempts to go back to the Quicken restore routine with the same problem of not showing the most recent backup, I was forced to try a work around by copying the Jan 11 backup file to another location on the C: drive, and then using the Quicken restore routine to browse and locate the proper backup in the new location on C: drive.

That worked. I noted that the properties of the backup file on the external drive were not “read only.” And I was unable to follow the post that said to change the backup file extension to read .QDF instead of QDF-backup. Why cannot I back up using the most recent backup file from external drive? Does it have to do with 2023 vs 2024? How can I save a backup file with a different extension?

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Boatnmaniac

Quicken should never be run from anything other than the local hard drive. Doing so risks encountering unexpected Quicken performance and potential data file corruption issues (some of which might not be repairable/recoverable).

Saving a backup file to an external hard drive or cloud storage site works OK because the file is simply being saved there, not being run from there.

Copying or moving your backup file to your local hard drive and then doing the restoration there was the correct process.

BTW, there is nothing special about the QDF-backup file extention. And as you noticed the QDF-backup files are not designed to be read-only. "QDF-backup" simply identifies the file as a backup file.

• We can use the File > Restore a Backup File function to restore the backup file.
• Or we can simply right click on the backup file name, click on Rename and delete the "-backup" from the QDF-backup file extension. Once that is done we can then open that file.

Oh, and there is no way to have Quicken change the file extension from QDF-backup for backup files when we create them. You can always do that manually after the backup file has been created but then you would need to manually change the file extension back to QDF-backup or QDF later when you want to have the file restored.

Mark1104

there are plenty of posts related to the challenges of using an external hard drive witrh Quicken. It has nothing to do with the year.

Personally, I back up to my Quicken files to my C: drive and then have a subscription to back up all my files to a cloud based service - quite inexpensive. Since I am storing offsite, I find it better protection that an external drive. The external drive will cover the risk of a hard drive failure on the laptop / PC but doesn't help necessarily help if there is a fire, flood, etc. That is why I back up to the cloud - the offsite storage covers me against these "acts of god".

Boatnmaniac

Quicken should never be run from anything other than the local hard drive. Doing so risks encountering unexpected Quicken performance and potential data file corruption issues (some of which might not be repairable/recoverable).

Saving a backup file to an external hard drive or cloud storage site works OK because the file is simply being saved there, not being run from there.

Copying or moving your backup file to your local hard drive and then doing the restoration there was the correct process.

BTW, there is nothing special about the QDF-backup file extention. And as you noticed the QDF-backup files are not designed to be read-only. "QDF-backup" simply identifies the file as a backup file.

• We can use the File > Restore a Backup File function to restore the backup file.
• Or we can simply right click on the backup file name, click on Rename and delete the "-backup" from the QDF-backup file extension. Once that is done we can then open that file.

Oh, and there is no way to have Quicken change the file extension from QDF-backup for backup files when we create them. You can always do that manually after the backup file has been created but then you would need to manually change the file extension back to QDF-backup or QDF later when you want to have the file restored.

NV-VT

thanks for prompt help