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From: Steve on 4 Jan 2007 19:20
"R. C. White" <rc(a)grandecom.net> wrote:
>Keep us informed of your findings and progress. Somebody here should be
>able to recognize your symptoms and suggest some steps to take. You told us
>your Quicken and Windows versions, but you did not mention the make and
>model of your computer (or your mobo/chipset/CPU if you built it yourself)
>or anything about your hard drive except "plenty of space". We don't know
>if it is WD or IBM, if it is IDE or SATA or SCSI, if it is 20 GB or 200 GB,
>if it is part of a RAID, if you have 1 drive or 3 - or anything else.
>:>( We probably don't need a complete, detailed description, but we cannot
>see your hardware so we're fumbling blindly, and a brief description would
>help us help you.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond, sure appreciate the
info! It's a Dell Dimension 4600 with 512MB 400Mhz DDR SDRAM and 80G
Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM hard drive. There are 4 partitions on the HD,
with at least 5G free on each partition. There's a portable HD
connected thru USB, but the Quicken backup goes to the local drive,
not the external. Doesn't seem to be any problems with Quicken's
data, even on the backups that appear after the error messages.


--

When you are arguing with a fool,
make sure he isn't doing the same thing.

....Unknown
From: R. C. White on 4 Jan 2007 22:58
Hi, Steve.

Well, I don't see much in your hardware that should be giving any trouble.
Are you using a network of any kind?

What happens if you unplug the USB HD before trying the backup? What does
Disk Management say about that drive? Have you used DM to assign a
semi-permanent letter to that drive, or does DM assign it whatever is
available each time you plug it in? (I don't think that should cause the
kind of problems you are seeing, but I'm kind of grabbing at straws here.
And removable devices can mess up the drive letter assignments - permanently
or temporarily - if you haven't specifically assigned them. I have several
HDs, a couple of DVDs, an SD card reader for my camera and a few USB thumb
drives. Each time I plug in something, DM wants to assign it a different
letter, so I assigned S: to the SD reader, J: to whichever "jump" drive is
plugged in, V: and W: to the DVDs, etc. So I always know which is which,
even if some of them are unplugged.)

Have you rechecked all your cables and other physical connections, or run
any HD tests? Even if the backup is going to the HD, a seemingly-unrelated
flaky USB cable could cause the inconsistent results you have been seeing.
Bad memory. or good memory that has worked its way out of its socket, could
do it, too. Even a collection of dust on the internal parts can create
static and erratic problems.

I hope somebody will jump in here because I'm running out of ideas.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.)
rc(a)grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Vista Ultimate x64)

"Steve" <teu(a)qprc.inv> wrote in message
news:h26rp2hrjjvk1i8modkdg5qbjlfofpm85t(a)4ax.com...
> "R. C. White" <rc(a)grandecom.net> wrote:
>>Keep us informed of your findings and progress. Somebody here should be
>>able to recognize your symptoms and suggest some steps to take. You told
>>us
>>your Quicken and Windows versions, but you did not mention the make and
>>model of your computer (or your mobo/chipset/CPU if you built it yourself)
>>or anything about your hard drive except "plenty of space". We don't know
>>if it is WD or IBM, if it is IDE or SATA or SCSI, if it is 20 GB or 200
>>GB,
>>if it is part of a RAID, if you have 1 drive or 3 - or anything else.
>>:>( We probably don't need a complete, detailed description, but we
>>cannot
>>see your hardware so we're fumbling blindly, and a brief description would
>>help us help you.
>
> Thanks so much for taking the time to respond, sure appreciate the
> info! It's a Dell Dimension 4600 with 512MB 400Mhz DDR SDRAM and 80G
> Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM hard drive. There are 4 partitions on the HD,
> with at least 5G free on each partition. There's a portable HD
> connected thru USB, but the Quicken backup goes to the local drive,
> not the external. Doesn't seem to be any problems with Quicken's
> data, even on the backups that appear after the error messages.

From: Steve on 5 Jan 2007 07:50
"R. C. White" <rc(a)grandecom.net> wrote:
>Well, I don't see much in your hardware that should be giving any trouble.
>Are you using a network of any kind?

Nope, just my one little ol' desktop. :)

>What happens if you unplug the USB HD before trying the backup? What does
>Disk Management say about that drive? Have you used DM to assign a
>semi-permanent letter to that drive, or does DM assign it whatever is
>available each time you plug it in?

It has a permanent drive letter. No change when it's unplugged.

>Have you rechecked all your cables and other physical connections, or run
>any HD tests?

Chkdsk found no errors. Cables look ok. Haven't run any other HD
tests - is there some freeware around for this, or do I need to
purchase a program somewhere?

Thanks again for all your time and effort on this! Obviously, it's
not confidence-inspiring to get these error messages - I've been
holding off on entering any new data until we can maybe figure out
what's wrong...



--

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
The pessimist fears this is true.

....James Cabell
From: Jim Jensen on 5 Jan 2007 10:14
"Steve" <teu(a)qprc.inv> wrote:
> Thanks again for all your time and effort on this! Obviously, it's
> not confidence-inspiring to get these error messages - I've been
> holding off on entering any new data until we can maybe figure out
> what's wrong...


I saw the following in Quicken forums:
________________________________

> I am getting this error(file NOT backed up) now when
> I try to back up to a zip drive. I have backed up
> this way for years and now get this message. The disk
> is not full.

Is the error only when you back up to the ZIP drive or does it happen regardless of the media you are backing up to?

Try to back up to a location on your hard drive and see if that works. If it does, the simplest thing to do is backup to the hard drive first and then copy the files to your ZIP drive using Windows Explorer.

If you can't back up to the hard drive either, copy your file using the Quicken copy command and give it a name of 8 characters or less. Validate the copy and then try to back it up. If it works, continue using the copy going forward.

From: R. C. White on 6 Jan 2007 22:41
Hi, Steve.

One or two more thoughts...

> Cables look ok.

Can you simply unplug the cables, then plug them right back in again?

It might sound like a useless exercise, but it has often solved problems for
me. My first computer, the original TRS-80 that I got in December 1977,
used several "edge connectors", much like the PCI connectors on today's
motherboards. Often, corrosion would build up on the metal "teeth" of those
connectors. We often had to give them the "Pink Pearl" treatment: We would
unplug the connector and "erase" those teeth using a rubber eraser that
accountants always needed; "Pink Pearl" was a popular brand name for those.
After erasing, we would plug them in and our erratic errors would disappear
for a while. Often, we didn't even need to erase; just the friction of
unplugging and plugging 'em back in cleaned off enough corrosion to do the
trick.

This trick still works with modern computers sometimes. Not as often as in
the old days, but sometimes.

> Haven't run any other HD
> tests - is there some freeware around for this, or do I need to
> purchase a program somewhere?

There probably are some free generic test programs. I already mentioned the
two I used (PowerMax and SeaTools), which are provided free by the HD
makers. They are targeted at those companies' products, of course, but they
should work on just about any drive. Do you know who made your drive? Have
you tried Dell's tech support?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.)
rc(a)grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Vista Ultimate x64)

"Steve" <teu(a)qprc.inv> wrote in message
news:r3isp2t5itni6p5lnqpcim7bgoej91j903(a)4ax.com...
> "R. C. White" <rc(a)grandecom.net> wrote:
>>Well, I don't see much in your hardware that should be giving any trouble.
>>Are you using a network of any kind?
>
> Nope, just my one little ol' desktop. :)
>
>>What happens if you unplug the USB HD before trying the backup? What does
>>Disk Management say about that drive? Have you used DM to assign a
>>semi-permanent letter to that drive, or does DM assign it whatever is
>>available each time you plug it in?
>
> It has a permanent drive letter. No change when it's unplugged.
>
>>Have you rechecked all your cables and other physical connections, or run
>>any HD tests?
>
> Chkdsk found no errors. Cables look ok. Haven't run any other HD
> tests - is there some freeware around for this, or do I need to
> purchase a program somewhere?
>
> Thanks again for all your time and effort on this! Obviously, it's
> not confidence-inspiring to get these error messages - I've been
> holding off on entering any new data until we can maybe figure out
> what's wrong...

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