Illegal operation and now File locked

[Walsh]

I was working on an Excel file when I got the message "System has performed an illegal operation".. Now the file that I was working on says it is locked by me...when I use the copy only, I get the Illegal Operation again. I have turned the PC off and back on several times.....will it help to reboot or will I lose the file....Any way I can retrieve it?

 

[Gord Dibben]

Walsh

Excel stores in Windows\Temp(win98) folder a copy(s) of any file
that is open.

Sometimes this *.tmp file is not deleted from the Temp folder when
you close out Excel(maybe a crash of Excel?) or the file, so Excel
thinks it is still open and locked for editing.

You can try a re-boot and see if that clears it up. If not, after a
re-boot, clear out your Windows\Temp folder.

If using WinXP your Temp folder would be under user.......

Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp

If on a network, re-booting the server may be the only solution.

Your original file is recoverable but any changes made since the last save
before the crash would be lost.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Walsh]

Gord, thanks so much for your reply...I have re-booted several times and used Disk Cleanup to clean up the C drive... but I'm very good at techie stuff...Now when I try to open the file, first I get the Illegal Operation message and when I cancel this message, I then get the File locked by me message.....have I lost the file or is there hope. Thanks so much!