For many small businesses, one file holds years of invoices, payroll, and vendor history. If you run QuickBooks Desktop, that file lives on a computer or server you own. So when the hard drive dies, the server goes down, or QuickBooks suddenly can’t find or open the company file, it can feel like the books are gone. Often they aren’t. There are several places a usable copy may exist, and the raw file may still be on the failed drive. What you do first has a big effect on the outcome.
Is it the file or the drive?
Not every QuickBooks error means a hard drive has failed. Errors in the -6000 series, for example, can come from file damage, permissions, or network problems as well as from a bad disk. Look at what else is happening:
- Likely a drive problem: the computer freezes or won’t boot, the drive clicks or grinds, Windows reports disk errors, other files are also unreadable, or the server’s shared folder has disappeared.
- More likely a QuickBooks or network problem: everything else on the computer works normally and only QuickBooks is affected.
If you see any sign of a failing drive, stop. Shut the computer down and work from your backups or from another machine.
Know which files you’re looking for
QuickBooks Desktop uses several file types, and they aren’t interchangeable:
- .QBW is the working company file. This is the one you want most.
- .QBW.TLG is the transaction log that sits alongside it. Keep it with the company file.
- .QBB is a backup company file, which you restore from inside QuickBooks.
- .QBM is a portable company file, a smaller copy often made for sending to someone. It’s worth having if it’s your newest copy.
- .ADR files are made by the Auto Data Recovery feature in QuickBooks Desktop for Windows, which keeps copies in a folder called QuickBooksAutoDataRecovery alongside the company file.
Where a good copy may still exist
Before anyone starts re-entering transactions, check these from a working computer:
- Your backup location. QuickBooks backups are often scheduled to a network folder, external drive, or USB stick. Search for *.QBB and sort by date.
- Your online or managed backup service. Check whether the company file folder was actually included and when it last ran. Some backup tools skip files that are open, so confirm that the copy opens.
- Your accountant or bookkeeper. They may hold a recent backup, a portable file, or an Accountant’s Copy from the last time they reviewed your books.
- Other workstations. Someone may have saved a backup locally or copied the file to work from home.
- The server. In a multi-user setup, the company file normally sits on the server or NAS and not on the desktop that shows the error. Find out where it really was before you assume it’s gone.
When you restore, use a new folder and a new file name so you don’t overwrite anything. Open it and check the most recent transactions and the balances before anyone starts working in it.
Don’t run repair tools on a failing drive
Rebuild Data, the Verify utility, and Intuit’s file repair tools are designed for a damaged company file on healthy storage. They aren’t designed for a disk that is failing. Running them there adds hours of reads and writes to a drive that may not have many left, and they change the only copy you have.
A few more things to avoid if the data matters:
- Don’t reinstall Windows or QuickBooks on the affected drive. A reinstall writes over the same disk that holds your file.
- Don’t run CHKDSK or disk repair software on a drive with a suspected fault.
- Don’t run file recovery software on a drive that’s clicking, grinding, or disappearing.
- Don’t rebuild or re-create a RAID array on a server until you know why it failed.
- Don’t keep restarting the machine to see if it comes back.
If the file is on a healthy drive and only QuickBooks is complaining, make a copy of the whole company file folder first. Run any repair on the copy, never on the original.
What if your backup is months old?
This is the usual reason a business ends up calling a recovery lab. An old backup still has value, because you can restore it and then re-create later transactions from bank feeds, statements, and invoices. That takes time, though, and it can be hard to do accurately for payroll and sales tax. If the current .QBW file is on the failed drive, recovering it may save a lot of that work.
Tell the engineer exactly what you need. When the priority is one company file and its folder, that helps focus the recovery. If you can, also note the file name, the folder it was in, and the date of your newest backup. Because a company file is a database, a recovered copy needs to be opened and tested, so check the balances before you rely on it.
How we handle a failed drive
We work from a copy of the drive, not the original, so the source isn’t put at further risk while your files are extracted. An engineer evaluates the drive and gives you a fixed quote, and recovery starts only when you approve it. Learn more about our hard drive data recovery and server data recovery services.
Once your books are back
Use this as a reason to fix the weak spot. Schedule automatic backups to a location separate from the computer that holds the company file, keep a copy offsite, and test a restore every so often. A backup you’ve never opened isn’t proven until you need it.
QuickBooks file on a failed drive?
Shut the machine down and call Data Retrieval at (213) 986-4855. We serve Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and Ventura County, and we accept mail-in drives from anywhere in the US.