Retention of Backup Files

rrosalli · February 2023

My husband passed away and I am now the one using Quicken. I am running out of space in my external hard drive where the Quicken files are backed up. There were 3 Quicken accounts-one for my business (I retired in 2017 so it is no longer used but needs to be retained), one for a property we owned (sold in 2017 so no longer used but needs to be retained) and one for my current personal accounting which I have been backing up every time I use Quicken.

I have a couple of questions so I don't do something disastrous-

Can I delete all prior files on the business and property accounts except perhaps the last two or three backups? Those accounts are not being used at this time but likely backups should be available if needed.

Can I delete all prior files on my personal account except for the last (how many)? This is an account that I am currently using and may need to restore a backup in the event of a corruption or??

splasher · February 2023

First off, each backup is a complete copy of your data file.

Keeping a couple of the no longer active data files is probably enough, just make sure that you store them someplace other then in the home in case of a natural disaster that wipes out your home.

Personally, I keep a bunch of them, but I thin out the older ones to the last one of the month or the last one of the year depending on how old they are and keep all of the last two months.

The somewhere other then the home is good advice for all of your data file (documents, photos, etc) backups, you never know when lightning, tornado, fire or flood might happen.

rrosalli · February 2023

Thank you so much. I'm kind of apprehensive being responsible for all of this now and your suggestions really helped

Retention of Backup Files

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