Extra 'F' columns

Hope this is the correct forum...

I'm trying to import a worksheet into an Access table - I have in the past managed to get this import to work without problem. I am using Access' DoCmd.TransferSpreadsheet function to speed up the import, however this requires me to have a table in Access with a field with the same name as each column in the worksheet.

However, the Excel extract I am currently trying to import seems to have a number of additional hidden columns, which I can't see, nor delete. These columns are called 'F30', 'F31', 'F32' etc... [Please note, these look like references to cells, but are definately columns that are invisible - they don't have a name, nor data, nor anything special about them, but they seem to be required on import!]

I can get round this problem by adding a 'dummy' column in Access for each of the hidden 'F' columns in excel - but this is neither tidy (and I don't know how many columns are effected (I gave up inserting new access fields at F32 - this could be the last, or I guess there could be thousands more to go!)).

Does anyone know:

What is causing these extra hidden 'F' columns?
How I might be able to work out how many 'F' columns I have in a worksheet?
How I might be able to delete/remove these 'F' columns?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

Not easily... there are 18,000 + rows of sensitive data!

I've given a single row example in this attachement - however all the formatting etc has been lost.

Anyhow, I think I have found the cause of the problem. Autofilter has been enabled, and covers all columns from A to CP. When I delete all columns from AD:CP this problem goes away. However, do you know why blank columns are being autofiltered? Does anyone know why the empty columns are called 'F' + number? Is there anyway to detect/prevent these from being imported?

This issue has also occured for me on a different worksheet - but this one is heavily locked down with passwords and read-only fields.

Rob