Can’t open files from “My Documents†after copying to them to DVD

[peter_greve]

About a year ago I had a laptop supplied by my employer where I among my work
stuff had a lot of private documents, pictures, etc.

I used Nero burning program and burnt all the files from the path
"C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\â€My documents†and "Desktop†and “Favoritesâ€
to a DVD

Now I checked the burned DVD to ensure that the files had been copied and
working. It was possible to open the files on the same computer.

Today – a year later - I need to use some of the documents in “My documentsâ€
and tried to open them with their associated programs - Word, Excel, Acrobat
Reader, etc. - and all I get is an error message saying that the files are
damaged. The files are not corrupted and it is possible to open files from
the 2 other folders – its only files in “My Documents†I can’t open.

I have tried to create an account on the new computer with the same username
as the one I have copied from to see if I could open the files, but it does
not help.

I have also tried to take ownership of the files, but that doesn’t seem to
help either.

If somebody could explain to me how to open the files I would be very happy.

Best regards
Peter

 

[peter_greve]

By the way...

A friend of mine has done the same thing (interpedently of me) and he are
having the same problems, so this is not an isolated occurrence.

Peter

 

[LVTravel]

About a year ago I had a laptop supplied by my employer where I among my
work
stuff had a lot of private documents, pictures, etc.

I used Nero burning program and burnt all the files from the path
"C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\â€My documents†and "Desktop†and
“Favoritesâ€
to a DVD

Now I checked the burned DVD to ensure that the files had been copied and
working. It was possible to open the files on the same computer.

Today – a year later - I need to use some of the documents in “My
documentsâ€
and tried to open them with their associated programs - Word, Excel,
Acrobat
Reader, etc. - and all I get is an error message saying that the files are
damaged. The files are not corrupted and it is possible to open files from
the 2 other folders – its only files in “My Documents†I can’t open.

I have tried to create an account on the new computer with the same
username
as the one I have copied from to see if I could open the files, but it
does
not help.

I have also tried to take ownership of the files, but that doesn’t seem to
help either.

If somebody could explain to me how to open the files I would be very
happy.

Best regards
Peter

Have you tried to copy the files off the DVD onto the computer's hard drive
and then take ownership of them on the hard drive? Let us know if that
works.

 

[peter_greve]

Have you tried to copy the files off the DVD onto the computer's hard drive
and then take ownership of them on the hard drive? Let us know if that
works.

I have tried that, but it doesn’t seem to do any changes. Also I tried to
copy the files to a USB memory stick formatted to FAT32 and then FAT and it
still comes up with an error message saying that the file is either damaged
or not proper decoded (pdf files)

When opening a *.doc file in Word all i get is a lot of white pages.

 

[Touch Base]

About a year ago I had a laptop supplied by my employer where I among my
work
stuff had a lot of private documents, pictures, etc.

I used Nero burning program and burnt all the files from the path
"C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\"My documents" and "Desktop" and
"Favorites"
to a DVD

<snip>

Hi Peter,
Create a folder for your "My Documents"on your desktop [call it Old_My Docs
for example] and copy the content from the 'My Docs" folder, do not copy the
folder called 'My Docs' with it's contents, just the contents within the
folder to this new folder. Once the data has been copied, right click on the
folder and untick the 'Read Only' attribute. Now try opening one of your
docs and see what happens. If still no joy open MS Word first then select
the doc you want to view and see what happens. Also have you tried using
Windows Explorer to access the file or simply double click on the My
Computer icon on the desktop or access it from the Start button, click on
the ROM drive that has the DVD in it, then right click, select Explore,
select the 'My Documents" folder, then again select Explore, select a doc,
double click on it and see if Word will open it.

 

[peter_greve]

About a year ago I had a laptop supplied by my employer where I among my
work
stuff had a lot of private documents, pictures, etc.

I used Nero burning program and burnt all the files from the path
"C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\"My documents" and "Desktop" and
"Favorites"
to a DVD

<snip>

Hi Peter,
Create a folder for your "My Documents"on your desktop [call it Old_My Docs
for example] and copy the content from the 'My Docs" folder, do not copy the
folder called 'My Docs' with it's contents, just the contents within the
folder to this new folder. Once the data has been copied, right click on the
folder and untick the 'Read Only' attribute. Now try opening one of your
docs and see what happens. If still no joy open MS Word first then select
the doc you want to view and see what happens. Also have you tried using
Windows Explorer to access the file or simply double click on the My
Computer icon on the desktop or access it from the Start button, click on
the ROM drive that has the DVD in it, then right click, select Explore,
select the 'My Documents" folder, then again select Explore, select a doc,
double click on it and see if Word will open it.

I have tried to copy some of the files to a new folder and remove the write
protection - but the problem is the same as before.

If i start Word and then open a *.doc - all i get is a lot of blank pages.

/Peter

 

[Jim]

I have tried that, but it doesn’t seem to do any changes. Also I tried to
copy the files to a USB memory stick formatted to FAT32 and then FAT and it
still comes up with an error message saying that the file is either damaged
or not proper decoded (pdf files)

When opening a *.doc file in Word all i get is a lot of white pages.

Was encryption involved ?

 

[LVTravel]

I have tried that, but it doesn’t seem to do any changes. Also I tried to
copy the files to a USB memory stick formatted to FAT32 and then FAT and
it
still comes up with an error message saying that the file is either
damaged
or not proper decoded (pdf files)

When opening a *.doc file in Word all i get is a lot of white pages.

Any chance that you may be able to access the computer which burned the DVD?
If access is possible, can you open the files on that computer? If so,
there is apparently file protection of some method. Copy the files to the
computer and then copy them again without any protection.

 

[HeyBub]

About a year ago I had a laptop supplied by my employer where I among
my work stuff had a lot of private documents, pictures, etc.

I used Nero burning program and burnt all the files from the path
"C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\"My documents" and "Desktop" and
"Favorites" to a DVD

Now I checked the burned DVD to ensure that the files had been copied
and working. It was possible to open the files on the same computer.

Today - a year later - I need to use some of the documents in "My
documents" and tried to open them with their associated programs -
Word, Excel, Acrobat Reader, etc. - and all I get is an error message
saying that the files are damaged. The files are not corrupted and it
is possible to open files from the 2 other folders - its only files
in "My Documents" I can't open.

I have tried to create an account on the new computer with the same
username as the one I have copied from to see if I could open the
files, but it does not help.

I have also tried to take ownership of the files, but that doesn't
seem to help either.

If somebody could explain to me how to open the files I would be very
happy.

Best regards
Peter

When you copy a file to a DVD or CD, the read-only attribute is set for the
file. Programs like Excel and Word can't open the file on the CD because
these programs attempt to open in read-write mode.

Simply copying the file to the hard drive won't work either, because the
read-only flag is maintained as "read only" during the copy.

You've got to:
1. Copy the desired file to the hard drive
2. Reset the read-only flag to read-write.

 

[peter_greve]

When you copy a file to a DVD or CD, the read-only attribute is set for the
file. Programs like Excel and Word can't open the file on the CD because
these programs attempt to open in read-write mode.

Simply copying the file to the hard drive won't work either, because the
read-only flag is maintained as "read only" during the copy.

You've got to:
1. Copy the desired file to the hard drive
2. Reset the read-only flag to read-write.

I have allready tried that - it's not working.
It is only files in "My documents" i can't open - all other files are
working just fine.

 

[HeyBub]

I have allready tried that - it's not working.

So, what DOES it do?

It is only files in "My documents" i can't open - all other files are
working just fine.

Copy the files elsewhere. Can you reset the read-only flag?

 

[peter_greve]

So, what DOES it do?


Copy the files elsewhere. Can you reset the read-only flag?

¨
I can easily take ownership of the files and change read/write settings.

When I try to open a Excel sheet (double click on the file) Excel starts
with a message like: This file isn’t recognized.. try opening it with the
associated program…

Same thing happens when I start Excel and try to open the sheet from inside
Excel.

It is only files from the folder “My documents†I have these problems all
other “back up’s†are working just fine.