file permission error

[Otto]

In Windows XP, using an internal floppy drive, cannot save even new files.
Get message "Word cannot complete the file save due to file permission
error", and then the file is named. Will the service pack for Office correct
this, or is there another fix besides first saving to the hard drive?

 

[Terry Farrell]

I would still recommend NEVER to save directly to (or open and edit from)
any removable media. It is the cause of many lost or corrupt documents. Save
to your local HDD, then use either File, Open or File Save, select the file,
right-click and chose Send To... to copy the file to the media. The problem
isn't so much a bug with Word but it is the way that Word works when saving.
Word always requires a temporary file in the active folder and when you
execute a save, Word goes through a quite complex procedure that involves
rewriting the temp file several times before it completes creating the final
..doc file. Removable media is usually many times slower than a local HDD and
frequently not as reliable.

 

[LeoVT]

I have open Word, and save a file to a USB drive.

When I reopen the file and try to save it I get the error message "Word
cannot complete the save due to a file permission error"

The file is then disappeared from my usb drive.

I am offered the option of saving the file using a temporary file name.



It is not a fault of the USB drive. I can open, edit and save the same file
with no problems using OpenOffice. I can open and edit files on a USB drive
using many other programmes, including say The Gimp. No data loss. But
suddenly, when I use Word the USB drive becomes faulty?

This is unacceptable. We are permitted to open a file from a USB drive using
Word, we are allowed to edit it. We try to save it, and then we get the
message telling us that there is a permission problem, just after the data
are lost.

Possible solutions:

1) Work on the hard drive.
I work in several places where the hard drive is locked down hard so that
users may not make any changes to the contents of the hard drive. I cannot
copy files to the hard drive in this instance.

2) Reformat the USB drive to NTFS
This is something that I don't want to do.
a) MS still has not released full specifications for NTFS which results in
the Linux chaps being so far unable to write fully compliant file-system
drivers. Thus I am confined to using Windows only.
b) NTFS is a journalled file system, which means that there are lots of
writes to the disc. When using a Flash drive one should use a non-journalled
system such as FAT or ext2, or perhaps one of the more specialised systems,
but there is limited support for these.
c) I work in an Internet Café. We have lots of people coming in with USB
drives, all of which are formatted as FAT. We would need to advise every
customer "If thou needst to use Word to edit thy files on thy USB drive thou
shouldst ensure that the said drive be formatted using NTFS!"

When googling for the terms "word save permission error" I have got
12,000,000 hits. Clearly we are not alone. Some of these poste go back three
years. The situations involved include Word ranging from 2000 to 2007, and
blame has been attributed to antivirus programmes, the unreliability of USB
drives, ignorance of users who incorrectly set file permissions. Operating
systems range from XP to Vista, and I think I spotted someone using Windows 98

 

[Terry Farrell]

NEVER use Word directly withy any type of removable media. Always work with
your local HDD and copy to/from the removable media.