Cannot open document - help!

[Geoff]

I just spent 6 hours completing an 8 page document, saved it to disc, and now find it will not open again. It gives the message "....cannot be accessed. The file may be read only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the document is stored on may not be responding."
The problem began when I opened a separate excel document (which was read only) from another source while mine was still open.
I have tried opening mine as read-only, to no avail. Somehow, the other document has changed the properties of mine.
If anyone out there can help me it would be greatly appreciated as I really do need this document soon.
Thanks, Geoff.

[Anne Troy]

Try any of the following if the file size is appropriate. A blank Excel workbook might be less than 10KB, so yours should be larger than that if it really contains any data.

1. Reboot your PC, especially if it resides on a network drive.
2. Copy the file to a floppy drive, take it to a non-NT PC (or yours if non-NT), and run a scandisk and a defrag on the floppy.
3. Try opening it from Word directly.
4. Try opening it from Word using the *recover text from any file* as the type of files to open (please don't forget to change this particular setting back to *word docs* when you're done or it will recover text next time you open another doc!)

[Chris Davison]

Geoff,

is you diskette locked ?

check the hole in the corner of the disc just in case some idiot locked it while you were out making a coffee or something....

[Jack in the UK]

Hi

Best first call from your evidence is to check the dos attributries. to do this xplor the HDD or floppy i think you said scan the disk, right click the doc in m,ention anmd see if ticked read only if so untick and click OK try to open


If it fails re check and see if no box ticked...

I would suggest cold boot (thats shut down abd re boot after you have make coffee or two minutes will do)

Open the said document .. any good.

[Geoff]

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately it still won't open. Other excel documents on the same disc will open just fine. Unfortunately any solution that involves copying the file will not work, as the computer cannot read the document, although it will confirm that a document of 62kb in size is there. It's VERY frustrating knowing it's there but not being able to access it.....grrrrr.

-Geoff.

[anno]

"The problem began when I opened a separate excel document (which was read only) from another source while mine was still open. "

have you tried opening this read only file, then opening yours?

[Jack in the UK]

Hi

Youir not answering direct questions, i have request you advise me the dos extention, i can work from there... without the extention of what was a xls file where do i start?????

or mail it to me on my profile JackintheUK@hotmail.com ill help if i can


also scan C root llok for chk file tmp files

another idea is try to find files and advanced to date range passed 4 days and scan... does the system hang / crash....

[Jack in the UK]

Hi

Youir not answering direct questions, i have request you advise me the dos extention, i can work from there... without the extention of what was a xls file where do i start?????

or mail it to me on my profile JackintheUK@hotmail.com ill help if i can


also scan C root llok for chk file tmp files

another idea is try to find files and advanced to date range passed 4 days and scan... does the system hang / crash....

[klb]

I have had the same problem as Geoff, with the same type of error messages. Other xls files on floppy open just fine but one of them won't. Happens on machine where file was created and on machine at home. Have tried to copy "bad" file back to original machine but it still won't open.

Original files all were from NT4.0 system. Home computer is Windows 98SE. Both running Excel 97. I don't know if this is similar to what Geoff is using.

The file that won't open was copied just prior to shutting down the NT machine. I suspect this has something to do with it because of the write delay of NT.

My suggestion for future, save file to hard drive and then save to floppy. If copying from Windows you may end up with a corrupt file.

[Geoff]

Yes I did try it.....still wouldn't open. After trying everything I could I ran scan disc which found errors and repaired them. It now opens just fine, revealing 8 blank pages. Still says it's 62kb in size....but all blank. I have given up, lol. Thanks all for your attempts, but there is obviously a glitch in excel that has no solution.

-Geoff.

On 2002-04-08 20:47, anno wrote:
"The problem began when I opened a separate excel document (which was read only) from another source while mine was still open. "

have you tried opening this read only file, then opening yours?