gone forever?

A friend who wanted to move all of her info from money on an old
computer to a new computer (without the benefit of a flash drive, cd
burner, network, cursory computer knowledge, etc) tied to move the
file to a floppy. When the floppy ran out of room, she cancelled the
transfer, and the file itself has since seemingly been lost. She
performed a systems restore to a date before the screw-up and was
still unable to find the file. Then she called me. I've tried good old
fashioned searching the entire hard drive by date for .mny or .tmp
files, FileScavenger, Undelete, etc, and cannot find anything
resembling that file. I do have one file of interest that is a
"xxx.mny.xml" but cannot seem to rename it and save it as a money file
to open. Is that even appropriate? I'm either in over my head or
missing something simple. I don't need to be told how stupid it was to
depend on a single file in a single hard drive. Please help? There are
3 years of data in that file, and tax deadline is almost here. THANKS!

Cal
Sat Mar 31 23:00:37 CDT 2007

In microsoft.public.money, leighz@hotmail.com wrote:

>A friend who wanted to move all of her info from money on an old
>computer to a new computer (without the benefit of a flash drive, cd
>burner, network, cursory computer knowledge, etc) tied to move the
>file to a floppy. When the floppy ran out of room, she cancelled the
>transfer, and the file itself has since seemingly been lost. She
>performed a systems restore to a date

I hope that restore was not one of those disk images that OEMs send
out that restore the hard drive to the way it was shipped from the
factory.


> before the screw-up and was
>still unable to find the file. Then she called me. I've tried good old
>fashioned searching the entire hard drive by date for .mny or .tmp
>files,

If you did not find sample.mny, then your search may not have been
complete. Make sure you are checking everything.


Add *.mbf to your search.


> FileScavenger, Undelete, etc, and cannot find anything
>resembling that file. I do have one file of interest that is a
>"xxx.mny.xml" but cannot seem to rename it and save it as a money file
>to open. Is that even appropriate?

Nothing of use there.


> I'm either in over my head or
>missing something simple. I don't need to be told how stupid it was to
>depend on a single file in a single hard drive. Please help? There are
>3 years of data in that file, and tax deadline is almost here. THANKS!

leighz
Sat Mar 31 23:22:11 CDT 2007

On Apr 1, 12:00 am, Cal Learner-- MVP <via_newsgr...@please.tnx>
wrote:
> In microsoft.public.money, lei...@hotmail.com wrote:
> >A friend who wanted to move all of her info from money on an old
> >computer to a new computer (without the benefit of a flash drive, cd
> >burner, network, cursory computer knowledge, etc) tied to move the
> >file to a floppy. When the floppy ran out of room, she cancelled the
> >transfer, and the file itself has since seemingly been lost. She
> >performed a systems restore to a date
>
> I hope that restore was not one of those disk images that OEMs send
> out that restore the hard drive to the way it was shipped from the
> factory.
>
> > before the screw-up and was
> >still unable to find the file. Then she called me. I've tried good old
> >fashioned searching the entire hard drive by date for .mny or .tmp
> >files,
>
> If you did not find sample.mny, then your search may not have been
> complete. Make sure you are checking everything.
>
> Add *.mbf to your search.
>
> > FileScavenger, Undelete, etc, and cannot find anything
> >resembling that file. I do have one file of interest that is a
> >"xxx.mny.xml" but cannot seem to rename it and save it as a money file
> >to open. Is that even appropriate?
>
> Nothing of use there.
>
>
>
> > I'm either in over my head or
> >missing something simple. I don't need to be told how stupid it was to
> >depend on a single file in a single hard drive. Please help? There are
> >3 years of data in that file, and tax deadline is almost here. THANKS!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

yes - i looked for back up files as well. no, the systems restore was
the simple windows xp style, not a disk for restoring to shipping date
or anything. it should not have affected and files anyway. doing a
complete search of any and all files in any folder on the computer
turns up nothing of any file extension for the date that she did the
copying, etc. i'm stumped!

Cal
Sun Apr 01 00:29:40 CDT 2007

In microsoft.public.money, leighz@hotmail.com wrote:

>
>
>yes - i looked for back up files as well. no, the systems restore was
>the simple windows xp style, not a disk for restoring to shipping date
>or anything. it should not have affected and files anyway. doing a
>complete search of any and all files in any folder on the computer
>turns up nothing of any file extension for the date that she did the
>copying, etc. i'm stumped!

I agree. Nothing would seem to explain the *.mny and *.mbf all going
away.


You might try looking just for files that are bigger than 4 meg.

You might try a command line search such as these in case there is
some setting in the non-command line search that makes it too
restrictive:

dir \*.mny /s
dir \*.mbf /s

leighz
Sun Apr 01 16:03:27 CDT 2007

On Apr 1, 1:29 am, Cal Learner-- MVP <via_newsgr...@please.tnx> wrote:
> In microsoft.public.money, lei...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> >yes - i looked for back up files as well. no, the systems restore was
> >the simple windows xp style, not a disk for restoring to shipping date
> >or anything. it should not have affected and files anyway. doing a
> >complete search of any and all files in any folder on the computer
> >turns up nothing of any file extension for the date that she did the
> >copying, etc. i'm stumped!
>
> I agree. Nothing would seem to explain the *.mny and *.mbf all going
> away.
>
> You might try looking just for files that are bigger than 4 meg.
>
> You might try a command line search such as these in case there is
> some setting in the non-command line search that makes it too
> restrictive:
>
> dir \*.mny /s
> dir \*.mbf /s


great ideas... i tried both... it is so bizarre... with the dir
searches, there are filles from 2002 and 2003, but absolutely no
documents at all from 2004, 05, 06, which are the years she tried to
copy! any other thoughts???

leighz
Sun Apr 01 17:24:52 CDT 2007

On Apr 1, 5:03 pm, lei...@hotmail.com wrote:
> On Apr 1, 1:29 am, Cal Learner-- MVP <via_newsgr...@please.tnx> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > In microsoft.public.money, lei...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> > >yes - i looked for back up files as well. no, the systems restore was
> > >the simple windows xp style, not a disk for restoring to shipping date
> > >or anything. it should not have affected and files anyway. doing a
> > >complete search of any and all files in any folder on the computer
> > >turns up nothing of any file extension for the date that she did the
> > >copying, etc. i'm stumped!
>
> > I agree. Nothing would seem to explain the *.mny and *.mbf all going
> > away.
>
> > You might try looking just for files that are bigger than 4 meg.
>
> > You might try a command line search such as these in case there is
> > some setting in the non-command line search that makes it too
> > restrictive:
>
> > dir \*.mny /s
> > dir \*.mbf /s
>
> great ideas... i tried both... it is so bizarre... with the dir
> searches, there are filles from 2002 and 2003, but absolutely no
> documents at all from 2004, 05, 06, which are the years she tried to
> copy! any other thoughts???- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

now i think i have more to add to the question... the location of the
backup file in money is always the same unless you alter it when
logging out... if 'yes' rather than 'don't back-up' was selected upon
looking at the 2002-03 data, wouldn't that have overwritten the file?
overwritten = not going to find it?

Cal
Sun Apr 01 18:42:40 CDT 2007

In microsoft.public.money, leighz@hotmail.com wrote:


>now i think i have more to add to the question... the location of the
>backup file in money is always the same unless you alter it when
>logging out... if 'yes' rather than 'don't back-up' was selected upon
>looking at the 2002-03 data, wouldn't that have overwritten the file?
>overwritten = not going to find it?

An overwritten should mean there would be a different one there. And
in any case, the .mny file should have been there. There is a brief
interval where there could be a ~*.tmp file, if I remember
correctly, but you already searched for such files.

Money 2006 and newer, by default, keeps backups for the last four
backups, and you can increase that number. I set mine for 99 since I
have a big disk. If I ever came close to running short of space,
then I would think about cutting that back. Money 2005 and earlier
would overwrite its backup file each time unless you changed the
name, assuming the backup address was set to a spot on the hard
drive.

In addition, there would usually be a scheduled backup periodically.
In the old days, people use a floppy, and then a set of floppies.
Today a USB flash drive would usually be the best choice for that,
but we know that did not apply in the case you are studying.

Your search should have turned up those files, even if they were in
the "Recycle Bin". So if you are trying to do forensic analysis,
there are some things that don't add up to me either.

leighz
Sun Apr 01 21:38:40 CDT 2007

On Apr 1, 7:42 pm, Cal Learner-- MVP <via_newsgr...@please.tnx> wrote:
> In microsoft.public.money, lei...@hotmail.com wrote:
> >now i think i have more to add to the question... the location of the
> >backup file in money is always the same unless you alter it when
> >logging out... if 'yes' rather than 'don't back-up' was selected upon
> >looking at the 2002-03 data, wouldn't that have overwritten the file?
> >overwritten = not going to find it?
>
> An overwritten should mean there would be a different one there. And
> in any case, the .mny file should have been there. There is a brief
> interval where there could be a ~*.tmp file, if I remember
> correctly, but you already searched for such files.
>
> Money 2006 and newer, by default, keeps backups for the last four
> backups, and you can increase that number. I set mine for 99 since I
> have a big disk. If I ever came close to running short of space,
> then I would think about cutting that back. Money 2005 and earlier
> would overwrite its backup file each time unless you changed the
> name, assuming the backup address was set to a spot on the hard
> drive.
>
> In addition, there would usually be a scheduled backup periodically.
> In the old days, people use a floppy, and then a set of floppies.
> Today a USB flash drive would usually be the best choice for that,
> but we know that did not apply in the case you are studying.
>
> Your search should have turned up those files, even if they were in
> the "Recycle Bin". So if you are trying to do forensic analysis,
> there are some things that don't add up to me either.

yes, re "Money 2005 and earlier would overwrite its backup file each
time unless you changed the
name, assuming the backup address was set to a spot on the hard
drive."
herein lies the bulk of the problem... it's money 2001... so, it's
overwritten... i've tried all i know to do... am personally a
forensic dna analyst, not computer analyst! ;-)
thanks for the help...