Well, I finally figured out a hack to repair my hosed Quicken data file. I use Quicken 2003 for Mac. Because the cute little “package” files are in fact folders with the special resource fork dressing slathered on, you can manipulate their inner contents from the command line via Terminal. So, what I basically did was this:

Note: For this example, the damaged Quicken data file (which will be looking and acting like your plain vanilla folder) will be called “bad_data”; the new file created in the example will be “newdata”. Be sure to substitute your actual filenames if you use this hack. And for heaven’s sake, BACK UP YOUR FILES BEFORE YOU TRY THIS!!!

1. Create a new Quicken data file from within Quicken; to make the next steps easier, don’t use spaces. In this example I will use “newdata” for the filename.
2. Exit the application.
3. Perform the following commands at the command prompt (in Terminal):

pbg415:~/quicken_purgatory barryh$ mv -R bad_data/Contents newdata
pbg415:~/quicken_purgatory barryh$ mv -R “bad_data/Data File Alias” newdata

Essentially what has happened is that you have moved your precious albeit defunct data into a folder that Quicken sees as a valid package file for it to process the inner contents. This cleared my issue right up; I hope it helps someone else.

Oh yeah, and this suggestion comes without warranty, either explicit or implied, and all that legal mess.