FreeAgent Products

[charles70]

I am a new Seagate customer (500GB Freeagent Desk - Model # ST305004FDA2E1-RK). The automatic backup function seems to be working fine. However, when backing up Quickbooks (from within the Quickbooks application) I selected my new Seagate external drive; backup was accomplished; I can see the backup file when I browse my Seagate external HD, but when I try to open my company file (from within Quickbooks) the backed up file does not display. Thus, I cannot open the company file. I know the file is there but it doesn't show for selection.  There are no error messages involved with my problem - I just cannot find the backed up file from with the Quickbook application. 

[AlanM]

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=211015&NewLang=en

[charles70]

Alan:  Thank you, but that is no help at all.  Any other ideas?

[AlanM]

What was lacking in that KB article?  Did it not address the specifics of your problem, or did it not work? 

Thanks for any detail you can give!

[charles70]

The article is very basic; sort of designed for a person that is new to Quickbooks, i.e.

1. Open Quicken or QuickBooks.
2. Click File on the top menu.
3. Choose Backup.
4. Point the files to your external drive or somewhere other than the drive where the main files are stored.

That does not address my problem.  I have already "backed up" Quickbooks to my new Seagate external HD.  The problem is that when I try to reopen Quickbooks, it does not "see" the file [I am "directing" Quickbooks to the new Segate external HD and by selecting a browse mode I can see the Seagate preinstalled folders, but the Quickbooks file does not show].  Quickbooks is looking for a file with a particular Quickbooks extension (it is a compressed file), and I know for a fact that the file is actually on the Seagate external HD, but Quickbooks cannot "see" it.

[AlanM]

Gotcha.  Yeah, it can be hard to write for both the n00b and the advanced.  It's a constant struggle, to be sure.

If you save that same "export" file to another part of your computer, like in a new folder within My Documents/Documents, can Quickbooks then see it?  

If so, drag that file to a new folder in the ext HD.

If QB cannot see it after that, there's some sort of QB problem.

OTOH, what if you drag the file BACK FROM the ext HD onto that folder within My Documents/Documents - can you access it then thru QB?

[charles70]

you asked: 

"OTOH, what if you drag the file BACK FROM the ext HD onto that folder within My Documents/Documents - can you access it then thru QB?"

Yes, I am able to copy and/or drag the saved QB file from the ext HD to another drive and QB can open it. 

Do you think it might have to do with the Freeagent software?  If so, I'll just go buy another ext HD without any fancy software.  I'll buy a Seagate if you tell me which model to get.

By the way, I don't know what you mean in this sentence:  "it can be hard to write for both the n00b and the advanced"

Thanks.

[charles70]

You will be interested to know that the same thing just happened when I backed up another program, a genealogy program, that uses a compressed file with an extension of .paf.  In other words, when I attempted to reopen the program from the backed-up file, the program could not find the file.  I guess that proves that my problem is with the fancy Freeagent software, which is nice for automatic backups, but will not permit me to use the ext HD for saving & reopening these two programs.

Do you have any advice?

[akpobome · Accepted solution]

Did you try using a click sequence of "file", "open or restore company", select the radio button for "restore a backup copy" and then nagivating to the .qbb back up copy of the QB company file on the hard drive?

 

http://www.qbproadvisor.blogspot.com/

[charles70]

That works!  Thank you very much.  I had been doing that sequence but asking it to "open company", which (as you know) is a qbw file - the qbb file is there and "restore" works. 

Thank you, thank you.