recovering accounting system

[Geert Janssens]

On dinsdag 8 augustus 2017 18:29:44 CEST L. Wayne wrote:
> Help!  My computer crashed and I was forced to clean install windows 10.  I
> do  have backups.  I have loaded Gnucash exe back onto my machine. 
> However, I can not locate the previous files I had for my accounting. 
> Where is the data I previously had and how do I “point” my new Gnucash
> program to this data for recovery?
> 
> What are the extensions I am looking for? Where are they likely to be found
> in the system? How do I bring my “new”  Gnucash to that location so that I
> can continue my accounting?
> 
Hi,

It's good you made backups! That will simplify the recovery quite a bit!

Gnucash data is simply stored in a file, just like you would save a word or 
excel document. The only difference is that gnucash opens the last used file 
automatically.

The way to tell gnucash to open that file again is like with any other 
program:
- either you double-click on the data file and gnucash will open it (and 
remember it for next time)
- you start gnucash, choose File->Open and navigate to your data file 
somewhere on your hard drive.

As to where this file may be, that depends entirely on where you saved it when 
you first created the file. Gnucash doesn't decide this for you. You have been 
asked to the first time where to save it.

If you don't remember, search for files with the '.gnucash' extension on your 
backups, which is the normal extension for your gnucash files.

More background can be found in the Concepts and Tutorial guide [1] and in 
particular
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/basics-files1.html
or on the gnucash FAQ
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/
FAQ#GnuCash_Files_and_managing_a_GnuCash_installation (and following).


You may also want to recover your settings. Where they are stored is explained 
here:
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/basics-migrate-settings.html

Regards,

Geert

[1] http://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=2.6&lang=C&doc=guide