Just get Windows XP, set up your hard drive using the NTFS file system, and
use a secure password to log in. It will be virtually unrecoverable by
anyone. Maybe the IRS could get in if they wanted to, but they'll get into
your USB, too, if that's what you're trying to avoid.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL


"Perpetually Confused." <PerpetuallyConfused[at]discussions.microsoft.comwrote in message news:7BE015BC-0CA0-4664-9676-E27F50449F67[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Can you spell Yodlee/MSN Money? They want us to pay them a subscription fee
for giving them access to all of our data correlated with names and so
forth.

"Joseph Meehan" <sligojoe_Spamno[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:LgqXd.1728$4k2.1497[at]fe2.columbus.rr.com...
- quote -

Perpetually Confused. wrote:
- quote -

I know you already suggested that you may be paranoid, but have you
considered that it is unlikely that anyone is going to care about that data.
I am sure that if I published mine, the only one who might be even remotely
interested would be the market research people, and they could care less
about who I was.

In fact I wonder if anyone in the industry has ever considered using
this as a tool to gather market information? Paying people to send in their
files would be a cheap way of gathering market data.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

In microsoft.public.money, Perpetually Confused. wrote:

- quote -

Jump Drive is a brand name.

128 MB or larger drives often be found on sale if you watch,
although I see a 1GB one on sale for $69 at the moment.

- quote -

Don't delete things until you get it working off of the flash drive.

I would copy the current *.mny file to the flash drive if available.
Then open Money by double-clicking that file from Windows Explorer.

If the *.mny file is not handy, then copy your latest backup to the
flash drive. Open Money by double-clicking the backup file, but do
not accept the default Money file location. Instead Browse to your
flash drive to cause the file to be restored to there.


In Tools-> Options-> Backup [M05: Tools-> Settings-> BackupOptions]
I suggest checking
x Automatically backup to hard disk on exit
x Prompt me before backing up each time*
x Make my file small ...

Then periodically, perhaps once per month or more, copy your
latest backup (named differently from your earlier backups) to a
CDR. With XP, this can be a copy and paste operation. Otherwise
use the burning software that came with your CDR drive.


* This has two advantages. You can change the file name
occasionally. I like to pick a name something like money050311.
Then it is easy to change the name to have multiple backups. Pick
the backup file location to a place on the flash drive. The
..mbf extension is automatic. The other advantage is that you can
choose "Don't Back Up, or you change your mind about exiting by
simply clicking the X in the upper right of the pop-up box.


- quote -



- quote -

If you open Money directly, Money looks to the last-used file, and
has a list of the three most recent files at the bottom of the File
menu. However you can launch Money by double-clicking the *.mny file
where it lies.

Note that you are supposed to click the Safely Remove Hardware tray
item before unplugging, but I think more people fail to do that than
do, and they seldom corrupt their data.

- quote -

You need not back up each time if the *.mny file is on your hard
drive.

- quote -

Yes. And change the name of your backup perhaps once per week. You
could probably stretch copying to CD to even monthly.


- quote -

Perpetually Confused. wrote:
- quote -

If you used Money to save the file to the external (USB) drive, it will
know. If not all you will need do is to use the open file command and find
the file on the external drive (likely something like "G:" the first time,
after that it will remember.

- quote -

That sounds right.

- quote -

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

Just to be sure I understand ...
I buy a flash or jump drive (whatever you call those thingies), stuff that
puppy into the usb port, copy the info from my backup CD-RW. Then I delete
all the money files (not the application but the .mny and .mbf's) from the
hard drive.

When I want to enter my data (usually once a week), I plug in the usb2 drive
and rev up the MS Money 2004. ***Ignoramus question here -- will it know
where to look for the data? *** Assuming it does, I fill in all the little
forms and check my balances, do reports, yadda yadda, then save by backing up
to the usb drive before I get back to my real life.

I can take the info from that (we hope) and back it up to the CD-RW (my Dell
came with Sonic Record Now, so I think I'd just go into Windows Explorer and
copy the file from the flash to the burner list and then burn it .... I hope
.....)

Sorry to be so step-by-step, but before I buy *yet another* piece of
equipment for this moneypit laptop, I want to be reasonably sure I need it.
It took 4 floppies to back up MS Money, so that's not a good option, and I
don't want to get a converter for the zip drive I have (it's an old serial or
parallel, whichever kind they were), so a flash drive (which I thought about
getting anyway) would be the best removable media.

I appreciate your patience and suggestions.

"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

- quote -

Perpetually Confused. wrote:
- quote -

CD drives are a problem since they like to make everything read only.

If you file is not too big, a floppy or zip drive etc. will work. Any
sort of external drive you can detach would also work.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

In microsoft.public.money, Perpetually Confused. wrote:

- quote -

That is not practical.

- quote -

Instead, keep your Money data files (*.mny and *.mbf) on a USB 2.0
flash drive. Copy that data maybe weekly to a CD.

I am uncomfortable keeping my MS$ info on my hard drive. I don't have any
account #'s entered, and I do use a firewall & a/v updated, etc., but I'm a
paranoiac I guess.

Is it possible each time I run my MS Money 2004, to use/add to all the data
from the backup CD instead of having it stored on my hard drive? If so, how
would I do it? Just insert the CD and then enter/update my info and then
backup to the same CD-RW?

Thanks for any suggestions. I am not technologically advanced, so any help
in layperson's simple babysteps would be most appreciated.