[SOLVED] Excel file format problem

[Dave Gower]

I have an Excel file on a floppy that was created in the year 2000 on a (now
deceased)
computer with WIN98 and Office 2000. I just tried to open it on my Panasonic
Toughbook with WIN98, also Office 2000. The Excel refuses to open it, saying
"file format is not valid". In spite of that, the Toughbook successfully
copied it from the floppy onto the hard disk using My Computer. I copied
that one onto another floppy and successfully opened it on my main computer
with Office 2000 and XP.

So how could the file format be a problem? The Excel on my Toughbook works
fine with other files. It even opens files created in Lotus 123 on a 286.
The only difference I can see with this one is it's
quite big (1.2M). I've been all over the Excel help and can't see anything
that seems to cover this.

[Bob Phillips]

Floppies are a problem, period. I can not improve upon this post from Gord
Dibben

First of all.......you should never save to or open from removable media
directly.

Save to HDD then copy to the CD. Same when opening. Copy to HDD then open.

The read only bit.......

That is the default behaviour when saving/copying to CD.

All depends upon how the files get "burned" to the CD.

With regular Windows burning, they will always be read-only.

If you were to use a packet writing application like Nero InCD, files would
not be read only and individual files could be erased or written to on the
CD
just like a big floppy disk.

See this google search thread

http://snipurl.com/6llq

Note the link to Alex Nicholl's site.

Also http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/cdr_info.htm


--

HTH

RP
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)


"Dave Gower" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have an Excel file on a floppy that was created in the year 2000 on a
(now
> deceased)
> computer with WIN98 and Office 2000. I just tried to open it on my
Panasonic
> Toughbook with WIN98, also Office 2000. The Excel refuses to open it,
saying
> "file format is not valid". In spite of that, the Toughbook successfully
> copied it from the floppy onto the hard disk using My Computer. I copied
> that one onto another floppy and successfully opened it on my main
computer
> with Office 2000 and XP.
>
> So how could the file format be a problem? The Excel on my Toughbook works
> fine with other files. It even opens files created in Lotus 123 on a 286.
> The only difference I can see with this one is it's
> quite big (1.2M). I've been all over the Excel help and can't see anything
> that seems to cover this.
>
>
>

[JE McGimpsey]

Did you try opening it on your Panasonic from the HD copy? You should
never open an XL file directly from a floppy - XL opens a bunch of temp
files, at least some on the same volume as the opened file. If your file
is 1.2M, you'll easily run out of room.

In article <[email protected]>,
"Dave Gower" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I have an Excel file on a floppy that was created in the year 2000 on
> a (now deceased) computer with WIN98 and Office 2000. I just tried to
> open it on my Panasonic Toughbook with WIN98, also Office 2000. The
> Excel refuses to open it, saying "file format is not valid". In spite
> of that, the Toughbook successfully copied it from the floppy onto
> the hard disk using My Computer. I copied that one onto another
> floppy and successfully opened it on my main computer with Office
> 2000 and XP.
>
> So how could the file format be a problem? The Excel on my Toughbook
> works fine with other files. It even opens files created in Lotus 123
> on a 286. The only difference I can see with this one is it's quite
> big (1.2M). I've been all over the Excel help and can't see anything
> that seems to cover this.

[Dave Gower]

"JE McGimpsey" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Did you try opening it on your Panasonic from the HD copy? You should
> never open an XL file directly from a floppy - XL opens a bunch of temp
> files, at least some on the same volume as the opened file. If your file
> is 1.2M, you'll easily run out of room.

Sorry, I should have added in my post that I tried it both ways. When it
wouldn't open off the floppy, I copied it onto the HD and tried from there.
Same result.

I've been all over it again and can't find anything that is strange about
the format. It has VB macros. Could they be triggering some sort of security
action (I have a high level of security on the laptop)? I ask that because
when I opened it on my big XP machine it asked me if I wanted to open the
file with macros, which I did and it opened fine.

This is really weird. I've been using Excel since the mid 90s and haven't
seen anything like it.

[JE McGimpsey]

Got me stumped. The presence of macros will not, AFAIK, cause a file
format is not valid error.

I've seen cases where trying to open the resource fork of a MacXL file
caused that error, but you said the file was generated in XL00, so that
can't be it.

In article <[email protected]>,
"Dave Gower" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Sorry, I should have added in my post that I tried it both ways. When it
> wouldn't open off the floppy, I copied it onto the HD and tried from there.
> Same result.
>
> I've been all over it again and can't find anything that is strange about
> the format. It has VB macros. Could they be triggering some sort of security
> action (I have a high level of security on the laptop)? I ask that because
> when I opened it on my big XP machine it asked me if I wanted to open the
> file with macros, which I did and it opened fine.
>
> This is really weird. I've been using Excel since the mid 90s and haven't
> seen anything like it.

[Dave Peterson]

OpenOffice also has a reputation for opening files that excel can't.
(http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-65 meg download or a CD)

If the file is really important, there are commercial recovery services. I've
never used it, but you might want to check into:
http://www.officerecovery.com

Dave Gower wrote:
>
> I have an Excel file on a floppy that was created in the year 2000 on a (now
> deceased)
> computer with WIN98 and Office 2000. I just tried to open it on my Panasonic
> Toughbook with WIN98, also Office 2000. The Excel refuses to open it, saying
> "file format is not valid". In spite of that, the Toughbook successfully
> copied it from the floppy onto the hard disk using My Computer. I copied
> that one onto another floppy and successfully opened it on my main computer
> with Office 2000 and XP.
>
> So how could the file format be a problem? The Excel on my Toughbook works
> fine with other files. It even opens files created in Lotus 123 on a 286.
> The only difference I can see with this one is it's
> quite big (1.2M). I've been all over the Excel help and can't see anything
> that seems to cover this.

--

Dave Peterson

[harsha]

A roundabout way of doing it would possibly be....
*Rename the XL file on your floppy from Name.xls to
name... best done in Command prompt rather than My
computer as the file extensions might be hidden.
*Try a drag and drop onto ur Excel application
If same error,
Try opening the file from the Excel Application File
Menu,ensure the Files of type is set to "All microsoft
Excel files" or *.xls
Hope, one of them works.

-Gujjar
>-----Original Message-----
>I have an Excel file on a floppy that was created in the
year 2000 on a (now
>deceased)
>computer with WIN98 and Office 2000. I just tried to open
it on my Panasonic
>Toughbook with WIN98, also Office 2000. The Excel refuses
to open it, saying
>"file format is not valid". In spite of that, the
Toughbook successfully
>copied it from the floppy onto the hard disk using My
Computer. I copied
>that one onto another floppy and successfully opened it
on my main computer
>with Office 2000 and XP.
>
>So how could the file format be a problem? The Excel on
my Toughbook works
>fine with other files. It even opens files created in
Lotus 123 on a 286.
>The only difference I can see with this one is it's
>quite big (1.2M). I've been all over the Excel help and
can't see anything
>that seems to cover this.
>
>
>
>.
>