Excel is renaming files

[Jody]

Excel is renaming files. Our office network is setup using DFS
replication between two computers. The two computers are capable of
sharing the work of the server. One is actually the backup server. The
server is running Windows Server 2000, the backup server is running
Windows 2003 and all the workstations are running Windows 2000 Pro.
All computers are using Excel 2000.

We open an Excel file, make changes to that file then save and close.
Once the file closes, the files name changes from it's original name
to a letter/number combination with no extension. If we make changes
again the file changes to yet a different letter/number combination.
We can rename the file to its correct name and extension. This is very
random. I have seen it happen on every computer in the network. We may
go for days without it happening, then it happens to every file for a
period of time. I thought for a while that it had to do with which
computer the workstation was logged on to, the server or the backup
server, but I don't think it matters. I have tried reinstalling Excel
on one computer, it made no difference. Norton has found 0 viruses.
Has anyone else seen this? Any help or ideas are appreciated – thank
you in advance!

 

[Charles Williams]

Hi Jody,

The way excel saves a file is as follows:
- save it as a letter/number name
- delete the previous file
- rename the letter/number name to the proper name

If this process gets interrupted then Excel may only get as far as step 1.

Things that can cause problems with this include:
- network permissions
- virus scanners
- network timing/loading problems
- the way that Excel saves a file uses direct access rather than a pure
sequential write.

There some articles in the MSKB and Novell KB that talk about this.

Sometimes when this process is automated from VB/VBA it pays to save to the
local PC and then do a filecopy to the server.


hth
Charles
______________________
Decision Models
FastExcel Version 2 now available.
www.DecisionModels.com/FxlV2WhatsNew.htm

 

[Jody]

Thank you for your response. I will follow up and hopefully resolve this issue.
Jody