[RESOLVED] Backing up Money 99 to a USB drive

[broadley]

I use Money 99. It's old but it does everything I want it to. I've just migrated this programme to a new laptop which doesn't have a FDD. The programme prompts me to backup to a floppy every 14 days, but won't allow me to change this option to select my USB drive.

Is there a way of doing this? I realize I can backup manually to the USB, but it's all too easy to forget and I'd like Money to prompt me as it always has every 14 days.
Thanks

[HAN]

I use Money 2004, so the choices may not be the same. But on mine, I go under File|Backup and then choose a hard drive destination instead of a floppy. Then I just use the browse command to go to the drive and folder I want. Hopefully, yours is similar...

[broadley]

Yes, I can do that, but doing it over-rides automatically backing up to the HDD which I don't want to do as it won't then backup to the HDD the next time the programme is closed.

I'd like the programme to automatically backup to the HDD on closing Money 99 but also to prompt me to backup to the USB drive every 14 days. This is the default action, except it offers to backup to a FDD rather than a USB drive.

Any other ideas?

[HAN]

I see what you are saying now. Unfortunately, I did not see a way to do it directly. The Money 2004 help lists the following:
"On the File menu, click Back Up .
Back up your file to floppy disks or your hard disk:
Click Back up to floppy , click OK , and then click Back Up Now .
Click Back up to hard disk , specify the backup location on your hard disk, and then click OK .
Note If you choose to back up your file to floppy disks, Money tells you how many disks you need. To have enough space, use blank floppy disks. To compress the backup or change the location, click Options . If you want to create a backup file on compact disc (CD), you will first need to create a backup on a floppy disk or your hard disk. Then, copy the backup file to a writable CD. You must have a read/write CD drive and the correct software to write to a CD.

Important Money automatically creates a backup file on your hard disk every time you exit Money or open a different Money file. Money also asks you to back up your file to floppy disks every 14 days unless you change your backup options."

Based on this, it appears that the floppy option is the only one. Other than copying...

[broadley]

Thanks for your input anyway. It's quite interesting. When I close Money the programme backs up to my C: drive (the HDD). It also prompts me to backup to E: which it seems to think is a FDD (which I don't have). Incidentally, my D: is a DVD R/RW drive. When I plug in my USB drive it gets designated as F:

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to make a registry change so that Money 99 offers to backup to the USB drive?

[SpywareDr]

Try this:

1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive
   
   
2. Click Start | Run, type in diskmgmt.msc and press [Enter]
   
   
3. In Disk Management, under the Volume column, right-click your USB Device and select Change Drive Letter and Paths...
   
   
4. Click the Change... button
   
   
5. Select a new drive letter (such as "E:") from the list of available letters in the pulldown on the right, click OK then Yes to confirm
   
   
6. Close Disk Management

Your USB Flash Drive should now be accessible as whichever drive letter you selected (such as "E:")

[broadley]

Thanks. I went to Diskmgmt.msc, but when I tried to change the drive of the USB drive from F: to E: I found that the only available drive letters I could select were from F-Z. Changing to any of these would still not satisfy Money's demand for E: drive.

While doing this I noticed that E: drive was listed in the Volume column. Right-clicking and picking Properties shows that E: drive is actually my HP PSC2210 All-in-One printer (which also has a USB connection). So it seems this is what Money is trying to back up to.

What should I do now? If I change the PSC2210 to G: will I then be able to change the USB drive to E: or will the system only allow me to choose from H: onward?

[SpywareDr]

Try it. You can always change it back.

[broadley]

Thanks. Tried your suggestion and changed E: (the printer) to I: I would have thought that now the OS would prompt me to backup to the next free drive letter (now E.

Guess what? Next time I closed Money it prompted me to back up to I: drive!!! It really is determined that I back up to my printer!

Any other ideas on how I can force Money to do what I want it to do?

Thanks

[SpywareDr]

Wonder what it would do if you uninstalled the printer?

[broadley]

I'm not particularly keen to do that as I had problems installing and uninstalling my HP on my old PC. That involved countless emails to HP Support which ultimately they couldn't fix. It's not playing up just now and I'd prefer to "let sleeping dogs lie"! In any case my guess is that when I reinstall it, it will do the same thing again.

I was hoping that there might be a registry fix. Unfortunately I haven't a clue where to start looking. Wouldn't there be a key that points Money to this particular hardware? It's not my habit to mess with the registry, but I make backups of it regularly. Or perhaps a System Restore would be enough insurance.

What do you think?

I suppose that it might almost be simpler to make a diary note to back up to my USB stick every 14 days, but I'm cussed enough to believe that I should be telling the computer what I want it to do rather than the other way around!

[SpywareDr]

The fact that your "Money 99" is attempting to back up to a floppy drive may mean that the "A:" is simply hard-coded into the Money program file itself, (instead of being listed in the Windows Registry).

Unfortunately, I don't have "Money 99" or I'd take a 'look-see'. (Use a hex editor to search(/edit) the Money 99 program files for "A:" [hex 41 3A]. And/or: Export the registry as "before99.reg", Install Money 99, Export the registry as "after99.reg", Compare "before99.reg" and "after99.reg"). (UltraEdit, UltraCompare).

[broadley]

Thanks for your thoughts but this getting over my head now. I suppose I am expecting a bit too much of a programme that's 7 years old. I guess that if it really bugs me that much I should bite the bullet and upgrade! Anyway I'll gracefully accept defeat and put it in my diary!

Thanks for your help. I'll call this one "Resolved"

[SpywareDr]

Sorry about that. Didn't mean for it to sound like the only solution. (That's just the way I would probably approach it next if I had the problem here).

You might try: Microsoft > Help & Support > Community Newgroups > Microsoft Money General

http://support.microsoft.com/newsgro...t.public.money