error on opening .xls

[totoro]

I have numerous Excel files created on a Win2K Pro system with Office 2K,
and I am trying to copy them to another Win2K machine with Office 97 sr2.
When I try to open the files on the second machine I get this message:

Windows cannot find 'A:\filename.xls'. Make sure you typed the name
correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button,
and then click Search.

and excel files will not open. other file formats are not affected. I can
otherwise manipulate the files (copy, delete etc.)
It doesn't matter if its an e-mail attachment or on disk the error is the
same. it doesn't matter if I doubleclick the file or open it from the file
menu, the error is the same. Any thoughts?

 

[JLatham]

Excel 97 may be giving you its best guess of the error. It may actually not
be that it cannot find the file, but that it does not recognize it as a real
Excel 97 type of file.

Go back to the system with Office 2K on it and open one of the Excel files
and use Save As to save it as an Excel 97 compatible file. Then take that
back to the system with Excel 97 on it and try opening it again. Also, I
presume you actually have the file on a floppy drive (as A: is normally a
3.5" floppy drive).

Newer versions of Office applications "know" about older versions and can
normally either open them right away or at least offer an opportunity to
convert or otherwise deal with them. But older versions of such applications
obviously have no way of knowing about the format of files made with later
versions unless just luckily the format didn't change between versions.
Access is almost notorious for being incompatible from version to version.
Excel hasn't been as bad, but there are file format incompatabilities between
some versions.

 

[totoro]

thanks for your quick response, but I already tried that. in fact I took the
disk to another Win2k Pro machines with Office 97 sr2 and they open there
just fine.

I am thinking its a broken install, and I am wondering if there is a patch
or if I need to reinstall the app.

but thanks for that again....

 

[JLatham]

I'd try some other things first before going to reinstalling.

First thing I'd try would be to just copy the .xls file from the floppy onto
the local hard drive and see if it can be opened from the hard drive.

If you get any kind of failure at all - cannot copy the file, for example,
when trying to read from the floppy, then you may assume that the floppy
drive has gone south on you. It happens.

If you can copy from the floppy to the hard drive and CAN open it from the
hard drive, then it still points to a problem with the floppy.

If you can copy from the floppy to the hard drive but still cannot open it,
even from the hard drive, then I'd still strongly suspect the floppy drive,
but that's not an absolute. At this point you'd probably try reinstalling
Office 97. Been a while since I had to do that, not sure if 97 had a
"repair" option or not, but if it does, try that first, if not or if it
doesn't help, then a repeat last install type of deal may work. Naturally
the last resort is to uninstall and reinstall - but at least you won't have
to go through all of the "activation" headaches with Office 97 that you would
with today's versions <g>.

Another thing to try: create a new file in Excel 97 and write it out to
floppy and then close Excel down, open back up and try reading that file from
floppy. That might tell you something also - especially if it cannot read a
file it wrote to floppy back from the same floppy.