I’m very sketchy on details but my sister has managed to lose (apparently) some Quicken files; I honestly don’t know how. I THINK she was trying to do a back up. My immediate response was for her to contact Quicken to ask for help; I don’t know yet if she has done so or not.
Her computer is a fairly recent Dell that runs XP Pro (I think). Some unnamed computer wizard has recommended that she download PCPowerguide; he has told her that program will repair her computer. From what I can tell, it is a registry cleaner program and I don’t know if it would be of any use or even if it is safe for her to install. We’re talking about her financial records, after all.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Um, wow. With that level of detail there is no way in hell I’d recommend a registry cleanup, not until it has been verified that the files are in fact gone and gone completely (meaning: has someone checked to make sure the files didn’t just get moved to a different spot in Quicken/some other folder? Were the files accidentally deleted? If so, are they still in the recycle bin? Are these save files, or actual program files?)
For any real help, more detail will be required (At least, I’d require more detail to be more useful). Maybe someone else has more experience with typical Quicken errors like this, but I’d vote best bet is to contact the company if it is a program error, not a user error. Even if it is a user error, they might be able to tell you at least what you are looking for.
To me, having a computer problem like this in a user that isn’t particularly savvy requires the same rules as being lost in the woods. Stop exactly where you are, don’t wander, and yell for help. She needs to stop, don’t uninstall or install anything, and get her machine to someone who can help her.
I went to her house last night and discovered the real problem was an error message from Quicken informing her that the “most recently used file list is limited to fifty entries.” She took that message to mean that she had only fifty files remaining or that fifty files had disappeared, depending on her paranoia at the moment. She had apparently been opening old files and deleting those she no longer used; therefore the recently used file list had been growing apace and no longer displayed files she wanted to re-review.
About a year ago, I convinced her to use Firefox instead of IE; someone else downloaded a disk cleaner Firefox extension; I’ve already forgotten the name. Out of sheer desperation, I ran that program and the problem was solved; now she will have to re-enter a lot of personal info as the cleaner program removed every cookie ever installed on her computer. It also ate up each and every most recently used list it could find. But Quicken is now okay and that was the main concern.
One big problem my sister has is that one of her sons-in-law is an electronics engineer who periodically screws around with her computer, deleting this, adding that, and rearranging the rest. Why she allows him to do it, I don’t know. I think I’ve now convinced her to tell him to keep his GD hands off of it. Another problem is that her multiple grandchildren play with the thing whenever they visit; they download whatever strikes their fancy. I think it is remarkable that her computer works at all.
I think I’ve convinced her to buy another computer for people to screw around and/or play with while keeping the one she has under lock and key whenever she has visitors.