File cannot be accessed

I try to open a file I've been using everyday for 3 months and suddenly I get
a message that states "'File.xls' cannot be accessed. The file may be
read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the
server the document is stored on may not be responding." Now the file is not
read only since I can look at the properties and the memory stick that the
file is on is responding because all of the other files on it are able to be
opened without a problem. I also can open the file in WordPad but it opens
with some text but mostly odd characters. Any suggestions on recovering the
data and opening the file?

Thanks

"KMc" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I try to open a file I've been using everyday for 3 months and suddenly I
>get
> a message that states "'File.xls' cannot be accessed. The file may be
> read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the
> server the document is stored on may not be responding." Now the file is
> not
> read only since I can look at the properties and the memory stick that the
> file is on is responding because all of the other files on it are able to
> be
> opened without a problem. I also can open the file in WordPad but it
> opens
> with some text but mostly odd characters. Any suggestions on recovering
> the
> data and opening the file?

Safer not to use a memory stick, but to copy the file to hard disk.
--
David Biddulph

Thanks, but that doesn't help me since the file is on a memory stick. I have
copied to the hard drive but it still doesn't open in excel.

KMc