HELP - File won't open!

[Irfan]

Hi all,

I am trying to open an Excel File that was working fine up until last night and then all of a sudden, it won't open again. It just freezes and I have to End the Program via Task Manager.

It's causing me a fair bit of distress as it's a very important file. It has a lot of formulas in (some of which are linked to another Excel file on my system). It's about 6.5 Mb big. Over the last few weeks I had noticed it was taking a bit longer and longer to save and to open, but I never thought it would do this.

I have run a virus check on it, and it's fine. I have around 5 GB hard drive free so it can't be lack of memory. I have copied it and pasted it elsewhere and it still won't open. Could it have some kind of bug?

I'm desparate for any help or advice.

Many thanks,

Irfan

 

[Joe Was]

If it also happens on other files, then re-install Excel or use "Detect and Repair..." from the Excel Help Menu, if not you may just wait, it may open after a long time?

I have had this happen to only one file, both on network applications and single PC applications. Their is not much you can do, other than use a nibbler to try and extract some data, but that is not much help.

I now back-up all important applications. If you are on a server your server administrator can pull you a backup copy off a tape. If you wait too long most re-use their tapes or backup drives at some time, so don't waist any time!

 

[Cbrine]

I remember I had a very large file with 1000's large vlookups, with a filter applied. One day the same thing started happening to me. I would open the file, which only took about 20 seconds or so normally, and it started just freezing up. I finally did the open and walked away for about 15-20 minutes, and it did eventually load the file. Before you go the extreme route, I would suggest you start the open, and walk away for a 1/2 hour or so, and see what happens.
The reason mine was taking so long turned out to be because I had a filter on the data when I last saved it, and this caused the recalculate to take forever on the open. It was on Excel 97.

HTH
Cal

 

[Irfan]

Yes this is exactly what's happening to me!

I did walk away and about 45 minutes later it opened.

And I have applied filters, but I don't think I saved it with any of the filters on (the little arrow in the grey drop down would look blue if I had right?)

But it's funny, I only put the filter on a couple of days ago.

Am I better off just removing it? Or should I just make sure I don't save it with the filter on again?

 

[Cbrine]

I fixed(???) mine by copying and pasting values over the vlookup I had, since I didn't need them to be dynamic. I don't know if that will help you or not, depends on your needs, and the formula's you use. You might want to try disabling the filter prior to saving it to see if that helps. The last time I encountered it was a few years ago, so things are kinda fuzzy now.

HTH
Cal