Converting from version 1(floppy) to 7.0

[RAM]

We have been using peachtree complete for windows version 1 (at least I assume it's version 1, it came on 8 seperate floppys). We have backed up everything on zip disks. We recently tried to upgrade to version 7.0 and after converting, it has been impossible to tranfer all our company info from the zip disks or hard drive. What are we doing wrong? Please help. Re-entering everything would be brutal! thanks

RAM


(by the way, I am not up on all the latest cpu jargon so please explain in terms I can understand - thanks!)

[Robert Walraven]

In the earlier days I don't believe Peachtree used COMPLETE in the product name - it was just known as Peachtree Accounting for Windows (PAW). If you open the file VERSION.TXT in the folder where any company data resides and let us know the value that is there, we should be able to tell you what version you have.

The oldest version I have online is 3.5. If you are truly running V1, it might make sense to convert to 3.5 first, then to 7. If you could use a tool like WinZip to compress your company files and send that to me, I'll try converting the files for you.

[RAM]

robert and peachtree people,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, my co-worker installed version 7.0 over our existing version before I arrived at work so finding out the previous version is problematic. The disks themselves say Peachtree Complete Accounting for Windows and like I mentioned, they are on 8 floppys. After seeing the "this is not a peachtree backup file" message countless times and a very frustrating afternoon, I managed to open one of our back-up zip disks. I opened the zip disk icon from the desktop. Most of the files come up as .DAT files and they all had a small windows icon next to them. When I right clicked on customer.dat (I just picked customer file out of the many files listed) , I chose to open it. At this point it asked me which program did I want to open it with. I selected /PEACHW at which time most of the window icons next to the file names changed to peaches. Peachtree then started running and for a brief moment I had my whole list of vendors, customers etc. back and running in Peachtree 7.0. Shortly after the zip disk was removed and after trying to access it a 2nd time, my cpu froze. I rebooted and now for some reason I can't get it back after retracing my steps. I've tried everything I know and looked in every directory and folder. Any other ideas? How can I get this new version to read and convert the contents of my zip disks to my hard drive? Any help is appreciated.

RAM

[Robert Walraven]

Starting with V7 Peachtree backs all data to a single file with the extension PTB. Before that it simply copied the data files to a subdirectory.

Peachtree has always used Btrieve for their database, which is split across a number of files with extension DAT. However, each version has made changes to the record structures in these files, so if your Peachtree V7 was able to read them, then your backup data on the zip drive is almost certainly V7.

Apparently you managed to get Peachtree running using the data on your zip drive. When you removed the drive, Peachtree could no longer find the data. Your system probably hung because it was waiting for you to reinsert the zip disk.

What you want to do is create a folder within your c:\peachw folder. Don't use more than 8 characters for the name of this folder. Then copy all the files from the folder on your zip disk where you found the DAT files to your hard drive. Finally start Peachtree, click the browse button and you should be able to select your company.