Carl
Level 15

Get your taxes done using TurboTax


I'm curious what you can get it off your solid state drive in a few more months, but not now. Are you saying the drive itself is in storage/transit, and won't arrive for a month or two maybe?

Now I'm a strong believer in backups. I tells folks that there's no such thing as "to many backups". I also don't back up what I consider to be sensitive data (such as my tax return) on remote backup sources that I don't have physical control of. So I've got no issues with backup up my photo albums and music library on I-Drive. But not my taxes or any other personal and financial information.

For the sensitive stuff, one of the many "local" backups I use is a 64Gb thumb drive on my keychain. Anywhere my truck goes, it will have me in it, and I'll "have" to have my keys for that. So things like my .tax20nn files, QuickBooks files and Quicken files are on that thumb drive.  That thumb drive is also encrypted and password protected.

Now since my taxes are only a once-a-year thing, what I do and have done since I started using TurboTax back in 2003, is burn the .tax20nn file along with a PDF version of the tax file to a CDRW. That way, with a re-writable CD I've got all my tax files on one CD all the way back to 2003. That CD goes back into the house safe until next year.

For my sensitive information on my keychain thumb drive, you may ask "what if you lose your keys, or their stolen?" Valid question for which I have an answer.

I use a program called Rohos Mini Drive. Basically, it creates a hidden virtual drive on my thumb drive. It doesn't show up in the file list even if you elect to "show hidden files". Not only is this virtual drive hidden, it's also encrypted. Therefore it requires a password to see it, as well as access it. So even if my thumbdrive is lost or stolen, you can't access what you can't see, and if you can't see it, then you don't even know the name of the drive. If fact, you would have no way of knowing there was anything hidden here at all.

You can check out the Rohos Mini Drive at PC World Magazine website.

"Is there "any" other way to get the full historical data (as if I had access to my .tax2017)?"

Yep! Since you have a PDF printout of last year's return, if it's a true and "complete" printout that includes all the worksheets and calculation forms, you can access it "one keystroke at a time" as you enter the prior year information the program will ask for.

For example, if you reported rental income in 2017, the program is going to ask  you for the total of the prior year's depreciation already taken. You get that off the 2017 form 4562 for that specific property, that prints in landscape format.  Then for things like depreciation, using the original "in service" date the program will re-assemble the historical data.