QuickBooks users report data loss

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 06:16

Business IT - Technology

An automatic update to QuickBooks 2006 for Mac has resulted in significant loss of data for many users.

The problem is that the update mechanism runs automatically when QuickBooks is launched, and it appears that a fault in the update script resulted in the erasure of the user's Desktop folder and all of its contents.

The script has reportedly been corrected, so damage to additional systems should not occur, but that still leaves affected users with the problem of recovering the lost data.

Some QuickBooks users have reported successfully recovering some, most or all of their missing files by using off-the-shelf recovery tools. Trouble is, any continued use of the computer (eg, to research the issue or to download a recovery utility) carries a risk that the deleted data will be overwritten.

The safest, but most expensive option is to immediately stop using the Mac and send the drive to a data recovery specialist. Whether this is justified depends on the value of the lost data.

In some ways it is fortunate that the QuickBooks update issue had such an obvious effect - it's immediately apparent if something deletes files that are stored on the desktop. A more subtle problem might not be detected so quickly, making complete recovery less likely.

The incident underlines the importance of a regular backup regime. It is much quicker and easier to recover a file from a recent backup than to rely on data recovery software or services. The Time Machine feature of Mac OS X 10.5 could have protected most of the affected users from losing as much data as they did thanks to its hourly backup process, but even a nightly cloning to an external drive or a conventional backup to removable media would have been a big help.

A related issue is that while the desktop makes a convenient place to keep files that you're currently working on or that you use frequently (not to mention text clippings and weblocs dragged out of application windows), this practice taxes system resources. Although the visibility of the desktop prompts reasonably frequent housekeeping, from a performance perspective it is a better idea to set up a download folder (as provided by Leopard), add frequently-used documents to the right side of the Dock and keep them in the Documents folder or other appropriate location within the home folder.