- quote -

I just wanted to chime in here with a HUGE Thank You,
Cal. Your information just helped me finish out an awful
weekend of trying to fix my MS Money errors/corrupt
files. Downloading the information from the credit
union's website was wonderful - however, now the unsightly
chore begins...fixing the account from the credit union
that does not yet have online banking. Fortunately,
not many transactions come from this account, so, it
shouldn't be too terrible.

Anyway, I just wanted to be sure that you knew that you
had really helped someone else out, as well.

Thanks!

In microsoft.public.money, John G. wrote:

- quote -

On the outside chance you missed a newer file, I would Start-> Search
for "*.mny,*.mbf" without the quotes on my hard drive(s).

If you converted to a newer version of Money during that period, you
would have a backup of your converted file that is a function of the
version converted from:

Ext Version
m11 2003
m10 2002
mn9 2001
mn8 2000
mn7 99
mn6 98

- quote -

I would download data from my bank, if available, to get maybe the
last two months. You can put in the other information you have. Then
add an adjusting transaction for the missing information.

If you then wish just declare the account balanced, you can
mark all entries balanced. Select to show only unreconciled
transactions. Sort by date, and go to the oldest transaction.
Hold down Cntl+Shift+M and let auto-repeat work thru the
transactions until none are left showing. Then balance making the
starting and ending balance match the known balance. Choose the
balance date to be the day after your last transaction. This is
not the normal procedure. It starts you with an amnesty for former
balancing.

Thereafter, follow the normal procedure.

Finally, In Tools-> Options-> Backup 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 money030828.
Then it is easy to change the name to have multiple backups. 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.

My MS Money file must have become corrupt and the
application could no longer load the file. MS Money kept
giving me weird error messages. Anyway, I played around
with it for a while and finally gave up. I had to load an
old backup file - I have lost about 12 months of data
(should have backed up more often - now I know).

Any advice for someone about to embark on 12 months of
reconciling bank statements in the application. Are there
any shortcuts someone would recommend?

-regards,
John G.