I had the strangest problem with Quicken over the past few days...
I was working with our main file, and had just set up the online banking information for a new account when Quicken threw up an error message and closed. No biggie I thought, this stuff happens... I'll just restart Quicken. Imagine my surprise when I double clicked the Quicken icon, Quicken started, and then, without any message, disappeared. Yep, that's right. I got the initial Quicken splash, saw the menu bar, heard the startup sound, saw the "loading" message for the data file, and then... nothing. No menu, nothing... just like I hadn't ever started the program.
Well, after a fair amount of hunting on Intuit's Quicken site, and Googling, I found that if I held the control key down while Quicken was loading, it would inhibit it from trying to load the last open file. When I did this, Quicken loaded. I was able to open an unrelated existing file. I was able to create a new file and then close/open it. But every time I tried to load our main file, same result.
So, I did more hunting and Googling. The leading explanation for the strange behavior was a corrupt data file. That seemed to be a reasonable assumption. I did have eight years of data in the file, and had been through many versions of the program including one beta cycle.
The resolution seemed simple enough... run the validate option form the File, File Operations menu. So, validate I did, and guess what? Validate found and fixed an error. Okay, I thought, now we are in business. No, not even close. Same result. Maybe I have to run the validate a few times I thought - until it comes back "clean." So, run it again I did, and once more, just for grins. Try again, same result.
Okay, more searching. Aha! If validate doesn't work, try "super validate." And how, gentle reader, you ask does one run super validate? Probably, you are thinking, select the Super Validate option from the menu? Oh, silly reader. Would Intuit make anything so straight forward? No way! To run "super validate" one must hold down the control and shift keys, before and during the selection of the validate option, and keep them held until the process completes. Okay, now, we should be in business, yes? NO!
Multiple runs of super validate yielded the same results.
Okay, the file is hopelessly corrupt I thought, fortunately, I have reasonably good backup habits with Quicken, and had just made a backup the day prior. I even knew exactly what I had done since the last backup. No biggie, right? Wrong! Restoring the backup and trying to load it yielded the same results. If fact, all FOUR backups yielded the same results!
Strange, huh?
Okay, more digging.
One source suggested copying the file to a new directory. No luck. Another source suggested ensuring the archive bits were set on for all of the data files. No luck. Another source suggested uninstalling and reinstalling Quicken. Guess what? No luck!
Maybe, I thought, something has gotten hosed in Quicken related to the name of the data file... So, I tried renaming all of the related data files. No luck.
Back to Quicken's support site... It suggested that if all else failed, I could try using the copy feature in Quicken, or as a last resort, the export feature. Guess what? In order to use those features, you must be able to open the file!
Then, I had an inspiration.
I had seen many times before where a program's uninstall wasn't thorough. The uninstaller, even though it said it was complete and gave no indication of having left detritus, didn't in fact remove all traces of the program. So, I did a search on my hard drive for any files whose name contained quicken. Yep, quite a few directories and files. For good measure, I also seached for Intuit. Yep, some of those too. Then, being the compulsive type that I am, I opened regedit, and did a registry find on quicken and intuit and deleted all of the registry keys I found. I then rebooted for the umpteenth time and reinstalled Quicken.
And....
It worked!
I have no explanation for this bizzare behavior, but I am really happy that I was able to recover my data file. Which, by the way, I promptly pared down to the last four year's data using Quicken copy, and validated just for good measure.
Postscript: just a reminder that prior to editing the registry, you should set a system restore point or backup the registry... just in case...
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Posted by David at June 12, 2005 08:09 PM