Any Quicken Gurus About?

[Chris Padilla]

So recently, I had the OS changed on my computer at work from Win2k to XP. Fine, that went okay.

A while back, I downloaded Quicken2003 and have been happily using it ever since and regularly backing it up per the Quicken back-up procedures.

So a few days after the OS upgrade (upgrade?? ), I got to thinking that I ought to get my Quicken going again. Uh, I couldn't find any install discs...anywhere! Doh, musta downloaded...quick call to Quicken and for an amazingly low price (like $6.50 total including shipping), they had a Quicken2003 CD out to me pretty quick.

So I load up the Quicken and go to restore my most recent back-up. Uhm, doesn't work...validation problem. Try the next back-up...same thing...and so on and so forth through 10 or so back-ups...none of them will "validate" according to Quicken.

So I call Quicken support...we go through all the stuff I just did but I learn of a nifty command call "Super" Validate. Uhm, that didn't work either...same problem. Quicken support tells me all my back up files are corrupt! What? How?

Thinking about the OS change, I try out Quicken on my wife's computer which happens to have Win2k OS. Same problem...back-up file will not validate.

So, anyone else have any other brilliant ideas? Lucky for me, here at work they back up your computer every night assming it is left on the network so I still have my full hard drive from back in early June when it was backed-up just before the OS switch. I'd hate to reload that to get the mysteries of Quicken solved but I'm getting desperate to have my Quicken back.

My take on this is that Quicken itself corrupted the files due to some malfunction in backing itself up.

Any services out there good with Quicken? Intuit (company who makes Quicken) doesn't appear to be very good with their product.

I've even tried earlier versions of Quicken but to no avail. However, I haven't tried anything newer than Q2003 but then I really gotta pay to get those ones and I bet they won't work either....

Thanks!

[Ed Breen]

Chris,

I can't be a lot of help, but we use winxp on our system and when I went to load a program from our bank for imaging our check runs, it would not load. We were able to load it on a win home edition. Might be something in the xp!

By the way, on the same computer I have run turbo-tax for about 5 years and although I hjave transferred it twice as I upgraded the units, I can still bring up those past years. Turbo tax is also an intuit product.

Good luck

Ed

[Paul Prescott]

You may already know these things, but there are a couple of known bad interactions between Q2003 and WinXP:

1. file path name can not exceed 39 characters. If it does, copy files to another, shorter path, like C:\Q2003\...

2. File name can not be longer than 8 characters, and can not contain special characters (spaces, dashes, dollar sign, etc.) If so, rename all associated files to 8 character letter only names, but don't change the filename extensions of course.

That's about all the help I can give.

[Jim Becker]

It's been a few years since I used Quicken 2003!! (I stay current) One of the things that can affect reading of the Quicken data files is the intermediate updates. You may need to do those with a "dummy" setup and then try and open or import your previous file. But it doesn't sound good for those backup files...any chance you have alternative copies on different media?

I had no problem, however, when I went from running Quicken on Win2K to running it on WinXP, whenever that happened and whatever version was current at that time. Works like a champ.

You have your Quicken on your work machine??

[Chris Padilla]

Thanks, Guys! I appreciate the responses but nothing so far is helping.

Jim, both my wife and I have work laptops and since we have two computers, we never saw a need to get a home computer. However, I'm sure as heck seeing a need for one now!

[Matt Meiser]

You have your Quicken on your work machine??

I was thinking the same thing. Every company I've worked for had a policy that said they had every right to read and/or delete anything you have on their systems. And that's on top of policies stating that you couldn't install any software not authorized by IT.

[Chris Padilla]

I was thinking the same thing. Every company I've worked for had a policy that said they had every right to read and/or delete anything you have on their systems. And that's on top of policies stating that you couldn't install any software not authorized by IT.

We have no such policies here or if we do, they are very lax about enforcing them in the 7 years I've worked here. The only thing, of course, is that they won't support it but that is perfectly understandable.

However, I am always installing software...I get all kinds of demo stuff for doing electromagnetic simulations. A policy like the above would be quite crippling.... Anyway, back to the topic at hand!

[Jim Becker]

Yea, this day and age, I wouldn't keep anything personal on my work machine beyond convenient software (legal installations) and "pictures of the kids". If the hammer were to fall, you might not have the opportunity to recover ANYTHING, not to mention what Matt brings up about privacy.

Hello, Dell???

[Chris Padilla]

Yep, looking into Dell now.... But back to the topic of discussion here!!

[Roy Wall]

Chris,

Just some shots in the dark....sorry if you've already tried:
<TABLE class=task><TBODY><TR><TD class=content>Verify the integrity of a file

Important

We recommend that you perform this procedure only if you're experiencing problems with your Quicken data and not as a regular practice. If Quicken finds problems with the file, it may rebuild it.</TD></TR><TR><TD class=stepNum>1</TD><TD>Choose File menu > File Operations > Validate.</TD></TR><TR><TD class=stepNum>2</TD><TD>Select the file you want to validate, or enter the name of the file in the File name field. To find a file that's somewhere else, change the location in the Look in field. To select a file, click its name.
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=stepNum>3</TD><TD>Click OK.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


OR....
Do you have a friend with MS money....you could try importing the file to their program; if it takes...save it and import back to your Quicken 03.

I have Quicken 04 on XP Pro with no problems. I've used the same file from Win 95 to current XP on three computers and three Quicken upgrades.....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Chris....we have Quicken Basic 99 that we use just for balancing the checkbook. We had it on a Win 98 machine and transferred it to this maching which is XP Pro......good luck!

[Chris Padilla]

Chris,

Just some shots in the dark....sorry if you've already tried:

OR....
Do you have a friend with MS money....you could try importing the file to their program; if it takes...save it and import back to your Quicken 03.

I have Quicken 04 on XP Pro with no problems. I've used the same file from Win 95 to current XP on three computers and three Quicken upgrades.....

Roy, yeah, we went through the validation phase already but your idea for MS money is intriguing. Thanks!

[Michael Perata]

Chris

I just opened one of my Quicken Pro back up files in Notepad. It appears to be encrypted making it impossible to save it in some other format.

I had a critical (no backup) corrupted FileMaker file that was able to be recreated by the FileMaker crew. I had to beg SENIOR staff at FileMaker to help me.

Try talking with a senior staffer at Intuit about having them rebuild your file. It seems to me they would have the tools to do it quickly and without data loss.

[Chris Padilla]

Michael,

Hmmm, maybe I do need to call Intuit again and beg. It is worth a shot! What the heck.

[Perry Schmidt]

OR....
Do you have a friend with MS money....you could try importing the file to their program; if it takes...save it and import back to your Quicken 03.

I have Quicken 04 on XP Pro with no problems. I've used the same file from Win 95 to current XP on three computers and three Quicken upgrades.....

I was going to suggest something similar, but not Money - a new version of Quicken. Get the latest edition, they all import older version files. So they know how to read the many different format variations, no matter how many updates might have been applied altered the file format. Might be worth a try. Been using Quicken 2004 w/ XP Pro since it came out w/ no problems. I did have a number of problems with 2003, but nothing like you are seeing. I thought 2003 was a buggy product. 2004 isn't perfect but it's a lot better.

Perry