Backup confirmation

[PWatson]

Mark,

I just want to confirm that the .fmb backup file is all I need to ensure that if my FM went down, I could completely restore and retrieve my settings and data from that .fmb backup file, correct?

Thanks,

P. Watson

[Mark]

Hi PWatson,

That is correct. The *.FMB backup file contains all your data, and all your preferences. This is all you need to fully restore everything related to Fund Manager.

As a related tip, it is best if you have all your data coming from a single folder. This makes it easiest to restore in case you need to restore to a different computer. It prevents filename conflicts in the case where you could have the same investment file stored in 2 different folders. Use "File / File Operations / Set Data Location..." to have FM make sure all your data is coming from a single folder. For a little more info on this, see:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/newcomputer.html

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

Your comment about keeping all the data in the same folder caught my attention. I keep the .dat files in a directory structure that matches the subportfolio structure I use in FM. I realize that if I move to a new computer the restore might take some extra work as FM might not find the .dat files and I would have to reopen them one at a time. Is there any other problem I am missing?

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

Yes. If you restore to a new computer, that has a different folder path, you can't use the option to restore to the original location (it doesn't exist), and you would need to choose the option to restore to a specified folder. With this restore setting, all investments in your backup file are placed into the 1 specified folder. If you had 2 investment files with the same name, that were previously stored in different folders, the restore would fail, as it can't put 2 files with the same name into a single folder. For this reason, it is easiest to just keep everything in 1 folder. In the above example, you would be forced to create a folder hierarchy the same as on your old computer, in order to choose the restore to original location option. Even something as simple as your username changing would cause the folder path to change. Especially now that the new default filename setting is <symb>_<acct#>.dat, there isn't a good reason to separate your investment files into multiple file folders. It just makes managing your data more difficult, especially if you were to have to restore to a new computer with a different folder path.

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

I can see that I misinterpreted the help instructions. When it said that the locations of the .dat files were stored relative to the portfolio file, I assumed that in a restore I could designate the position of the portfolio file and the .dat files would be placed in the same structure relative to it that the were originally. But is sounds like you are saying that doesn't work in a restore operation.

I have number of investments which occur in different subportfolios and would very much like to preserve the informtion as to which subportfolio the .dat files are associated with, but most of my .dat files are named only with the investment symbol. If I have to move them all into a single directory, is there a good way to rename them to include the subportfolio name (the account number will do if that is the only practical option)? If possible I would prefer to name them with subportfolio first followed by symbol so they will sort by subportfolio.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

The portfolio file (*.mm4) does remember the investment filenames, relative to the location of the .mm4 file itself. This is used when opening a portfolio file. You could move the whole structure to a different location, with the same hierarchy, and it would open fine.

The backup *.FMB however, remembers the original location of all the files in the backup. When restoring, you can either restore to that exact location, or put everything into a single specified folder. You cannot choose a different base folder, and have all the investment files restored to a location relative to the .mm4 file you are restoring. (This may be a good restore option to add, but it isn't a feature today.)

There is no easy way to automatically rename all your investment files with the sub-portfolio name, or the account number. Once assigned at creation, to change them, you would need to select an investment, and choose "File / Save Investment As...", one investment at a time.

If saving everything to a single folder is not something you want to do, a second option would be to pick a folder path that you could create on any other computer. For example, if you were saving in your "My Documents \ Fund Manager" folder now, that is a path of:

C:\Users\<username>\My Documents\Fund Manager

If you were to get a new computer, and didn't have the same <username> you could have difficulties restoring when using multiple folders to store your data. You could instead, save everything to a folder like:

C:\Data\Fund Manager

So that on your new computer, you could just create this folder, and it is independent of your username. You would be able to restore from the *.FMB to the original location, since that original location exists on this new computer.

A third option is to not rely on Fund Manager's *.FMB for restoring. You can just copy your whole data structure to a backup of your own. You could restore that whole data structure to any other directory, and as long as you kept it with the same hierarchy, you could re-open it from a different folder.

The recommended approach is to store all your data in a single folder. It makes things easier. You can use the "File / File Operations / Set Data Location..." to have FM move everything into a single folder for you. Afterwards, you can use "File / Save Investment As..." on any investments you want to change filenames for. Just make sure you continue saving everything to this same folder.

[Ivan]

Hi again Mark,

Thanks for the detailed response. I have a good number of investments and several subportfolios. Renaming investments one at a time would be quite a task. What do you think of the method below of getting all the files moved to the same folder with the naming structure I want?

All of my .dat files are named only with the symbol. I have a bulk file renaming utility that will rename the files in a folder as I wish, in this case inserting the subportfolio name in front of the symbol. Dealing with one subportfolio folder at at time I could close all investments, rename the files, and then reopen them. When I had finished with all subportfolios I could use the Set Data Location function to move them all to the same location.

Since there would be no duplicate file names I assume FM would not change them as it moved them to the common location. This also assumes investment attributes such as type, goal, asset type, hidden, internet retrieve location, accounting method, etc., are stored in the .dat file so they wouldn't be lost in the close/reopen process.

Does this procedure sound viable to you?

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

Yes, this approach would work just as you've described. You are correct, that if you use the "Set Data Location" command, and there aren't filename conflicts, none of them will be renamed. All attributes are stored in the .dat file, so you should be fine with this approach.

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

I have started the subportfolio by subportfolio process of closing, renaming and reopeniing investments and have run into a small glitch. I caught it before it caused a problem and it was easily corrected, but I thought I should mention it in case this question comes up again. The subportfolio property of Default Cash Investment is lost. Makes sense since I assume that investment's file name is stored in the portfolio file and it no longer exists.

Hope this helps someone,
Ivan

[Ivan]

Mark,

I ran into a big glitch. I successfully renamed the .dat files in their original folders, but when I used the Set Data Location function it truncated all the file names to 11 characters and appended an underscore and number to make them unique. Thus I lost all the symbol names and much of the portfolio name in all the files - a rather unpleasant surprise. Fortunately I did a backup before this step, but this still leaves me with the old folder structure. What suggestions do you have? I'd like to make this work.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

Sorry about this... I didn't think it worked that way, but after looking more closely, it will do just as you described. If an investment isn't located in the specified destination folder, FM will always create a unique filename for it, using the symbol only, and then appending a unique number. Instead, it should default to using the existing filename if it doesn't exist in that folder. We will look into improving this.

For now though, you can do as you have been, but move the files to the desired destination folder and then re-open them from that folder into your sub-portfolio.

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

I'll look forward to the enhancement. Until then no real problem except the possibility that I have to restore onto another machine. If I follow your suggestion to ignore the backup, recreate the file structure at another location and open the investments manually I know I lose the registry settings. From a practical standpoint what will I have lost.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

I was suggesting that you could continue on moving your data files to a single folder yourself. Instead of closing/renaming/opening, do a close/rename/move/open.

If you don't want to move all your files to a single folder, you can always just move your folders to a new computer, in the same hierarchy. You can also still use a backup file (*.FMB) and only choose to restore the global registry preferences, so you won't lose anything.

[Ivan]

Excellent! Thanks Mark.