"file" cannot be accessed

[FJB]

Today when I tried to access a file (stored on a jump drive) I have
been using for several months to track my 401-K, I received the
following message:

"'file name' cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you
may be trying to access a ready-only location. Or, the server the
document is stored on may not be responding."

This is the only excel file on the jump drive which is not accessible.
Any thoughts on how/if I can recover the information?

Thanks

 

[Dave Peterson]

Can you use windows explorer and copy it to your local harddrive and open from
there?

I would be reluctant to open workbooks (or any Office file) directly from a
removable media (floppy/cd/jump drive).

 

[FJB]

When I attempted to copy the file from the jump drive to the C; drive,
the following error message appeared: “Cannot copy “File Name”: The
file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.”

 

[Dave Peterson]

That makes it sound like it's not an excel problem.

It sounds to me like the file is really corrupted. Do you have a backup
somewhere?

Maybe there are tools that can help recover this kind of file--I don't know of
any, though.

 

[David McRitchie]

Make sure you can see hidden files, then look in the
directory for files without and file extension, rename it
to a nice filename with .xls file extension -- if you find one,
and copy it to your hard drive. As stated earlier you should
not use removable media directly with Excel.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/backup.htm