Restore data files

[mayhaw9999]

Hi Mark,
My old desktop computer mysteriously deleted the Fund Manager program and data files. I suspect registry cleaning software! I have a backup file on an external hard drive that is labeled "copy of FundManager09282007". I downloaded and installed a new copy of Fund Manager, but am having problems restoring the data files. I had similar problems restoring data on the old computer after a hard drive failure, but finally worked it out. I created a My_Data folder in the Fund Manager folder in My Documents. I then copied the above file into that folder, but still have a problem. I’m obviously not computer literate enough to go further. I have read the restore page in the documentation.

[Mark]

Hello myhaw9999,

Does your backup contain any investment or portfolio files? There are 2 types of files created by Fund Manager: investment files, which have the extension *.dat, and portfolio files that have an extension of *.mm4. Just copy all of these *.dat and *.mm4 files from your backup into your hard drve. The "My Documents\Fund Manager\My_Data" folder is a fine place to store your data files. Once you have your *.dat and *.mm4 files in this folder, start up Fund Manager and choose "File / Open Portfolio..." and browse to this folder, and select any of the *.mm4 files you just copied. If you only have investment files, use "File / Open Investment(s)..." instead.

[mayhaw9999]

Good Morning Mark,

The backup file is a file created by fund Manager using file/backup. All backups created this way are on my hard drive as "Copy of FundManagerxxxxxxx.bck" with the x's being the date code I assign, ie 12042007. I'm not sure how to get into that file to find out what's there and restore gives me the following error message "O:\ABT.dat was not copied to C:\Program Files\Fund Manager\My_Data". When I click on OK, "original restore path does not exist. Would you like to view online help on how to change this path?" error appears.

I'm really sorry that I've been unable to work this out.

David

[Mark]

Hello David,

When you do the "File / Backup..." in Fund Manager you get a *.bck file like you're describing, plus all of the investment files (*.dat). The .bck file only lists all the *.dat files that should be restored. To do a restore you must also have the *.dat files that should have also been copied when you made the backup. The *.bck file is not sufficient by itself to do a restore, you must also have the *.dat investment files. Do you have any of your investment files?

[mayhaw9999]

Yes, I do. I have so many old investment files backed up that I had to explore the files until I found one that was modified on the date of the backup. Interestingly, the new computer wants to make each file a video cd file. I plugged the drive into my laptop and was able to explore easily. I think something about the Nero program that came with my new DVD burner.

David

[Mark]

Hi David,

It is good you have the .dat investment files. You should have 1 investment file (*.dat) for each investment you have created. For example, Intel would be 1 investment file, and IBM would be another, etc... Just copy these *.dat files to your computer, and then open them from within Fund Manager using "File / Open Investment(s)...".

[mayhaw9999]

I'll do that tonight.

Thanks for your help.

David

[mayhaw9999]

Hi Mark,

Got the .dat files moved over. Where are the .mm4 files? Do I have to regreate my multiple portfolios.

David

[Mark]

Hi David,

Unfortunately, the "File / Backup..." feature in Fund Manager doesn't copy your .mm4 file. If you don't have another copy of your portfolio file, you'll have to re-create it. Just use "File / Open Investment(s)..." to open up all your *.dat investment files, and then use "File / Save Portfolio As..." to create yourself a new .mm4 file. All of the pricing and transaction data is stored in the investment files, so you won't lose any investment data history.

This backup feature is something we plan on improving.

[mayhaw9999]

Thanks Mark. I guess this is the first time I've had to restore all the portfolios as well as the files. Anyway, it's progressing fairly well now. This is giving me a chance to do some serious house cleaning!

David

[data8504]

Hey, Mark -

If I can just throw my two cents in...

I've had to do a backup/restore a couple times, and I'd really like to say this system is _awful_. I really love everything about FM, but system migration and data restore are awfully cumbersome.

Perhaps consider a packaged file in the future? I'd really like to be able to kee my portfolio, investments, etc. in one file for ease of backup and transfer.

-Matt

[Mark]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the feedback. I'd have to agree we need to do some work on the backup/restore functionality. It really hasn't kept pace with the rest of the program over the years. A single backup file containing everything is an interesting idea. Maybe the restore functionality could allow you to choose from which pieces you want to restore (portfolio/investments/registry settings). One concern with a single file is that it removes flexibility for those who want to manually restore from this backup. We'll have to give this some thought for the next major update.