Problem opening an xls file.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter Haworth
  • Start date Start date
P

Peter Haworth

Every time I try to open a particular spreadsheet, I get the following
error:

"MR accounts.xls cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only or you may
be trying to access a read-only location."

The Properties dialog does not show the read-only attribute checked and I
can access other files in the same folder with no problem.

I am running Windows 98SE with all the latest patches and the file is
staored on a local hard drive.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Pete
 
Tried that but no joy. Got another clue when I tried to make a copy of the
file with Copy/Paste. This time the error message said the file was either
read-only or in use by another program, so I think maybe some flag has been
set to indicate that the file is in use, but no idea where to olook for
that.

ANy more ideas anyone?

Thanks,
Pete
 
Maybe my first question should have been: Where is the file located?

If it is on a read-only media (CDROM), then copy it to your harddrive, change
the attributes of that copied file to non-readonly (via windows explorer). Then
try to open that copy.

If your file is on a network share, sometimes rebooting that server helps.

And is there any chance you could copy|paste elsewhere|delete the original and
move/rename the copied file to the original.
 
Thanks Dave. The file is on a local hard drive. The folder it is in
contains other files which I can access with no problem, including other
Excel files. I've tried copying and pasting to another location and get an
error that states that Access is Denied and the file may be in use.

I'm pretty sure that somehow or other an "in-use" flag has been set for this
file. However I have no idea where the in-use flag can be found or how to
clear it since it doesn't appear in the Properties dialog for the file.

I guess this is really more of a Windows issue than an Excel issue, but if
anyone knows anything about this in-use flag and how to clear it, it sure
would help me!

Thanks,
Pete
 
Try running scandisk on the drive (check the option to automatically fix
errors).

Start > Programs > Accessories > System tools > ScanDisk


Mike Argy
Custom Office solutions and
Windows/UNIX applications



Peter said:
Thanks Dave. The file is on a local hard drive. The folder it is in
contains other files which I can access with no problem, including other
Excel files. I've tried copying and pasting to another location and get an
error that states that Access is Denied and the file may be in use.

I'm pretty sure that somehow or other an "in-use" flag has been set for this
file. However I have no idea where the in-use flag can be found or how to
clear it since it doesn't appear in the Properties dialog for the file.

I guess this is really more of a Windows issue than an Excel issue, but if
anyone knows anything about this in-use flag and how to clear it, it sure
would help me!

Thanks,
Pete
Click to expand...
 
For files stored on the local harddisk, I've had good luck with the cleaning up
the Temp folder and rebooting.

But for files located on a network drive, sometimes that server has to be
rebooted.

In any case, it sounds like the copy|rename might be the only solution for you.

Peter said:
Thanks Dave. The file is on a local hard drive. The folder it is in
contains other files which I can access with no problem, including other
Excel files. I've tried copying and pasting to another location and get an
error that states that Access is Denied and the file may be in use.

I'm pretty sure that somehow or other an "in-use" flag has been set for this
file. However I have no idea where the in-use flag can be found or how to
clear it since it doesn't appear in the Properties dialog for the file.

I guess this is really more of a Windows issue than an Excel issue, but if
anyone knows anything about this in-use flag and how to clear it, it sure
would help me!

Thanks,
Pete
Click to expand...
 
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