File hangs on saving, won't save. What can be done?

[StargateFan]

I've never had this happen before so I'm not sure anything can be
done.

This file has worked fine for weeks. I work on it from my USB flash
drive. First indication of trouble was yesterday. I couldn't save it
while I was at the office. I took it off the flash drive and put it
on desktop. No go.

Just tried it here at home and the same thing. I can seem to make new
files and save them so something is wrong with this particular file.

I have a floating toolbar and a lot of formulas and conditional
formatting, if that's any help.

Thanks in advance. This is worrying as it's the most important
spreadsheet I've ever made. I handle my finances through it now <g>.
Tx.

 

[Alan]

The rule of thumb is never to open from or save anything to an external
drive, copy it to your hard drive and open it from there, same with saving,
save from a closed file on the hard drive. Were you saving the open file
directly to the flash drive? If so I fear the worst,
Sorry,
Alan.

 

[StargateFan]

The rule of thumb is never to open from or save anything to an external
drive, copy it to your hard drive and open it from there, same with saving,
save from a closed file on the hard drive. Were you saving the open file
directly to the flash drive? If so I fear the worst,
Sorry,

<sigh> Yes. And it worked for weeks and weeks. So what's the point
in the flash drive, then, if you can't save to it???!!!! <sigh>

Okay. Fortunately for me I have lots of backups. I'll be missing the
latest innovations made but I can get to a previous state that could
be saved.

What a drag. I run a lot of things off the flash drive now. Now I
have to worry that this will happen???

 

[Alan]

There's no reason not to use the flashdrive, just don't open save Excel
files to it directly. If you want to open your file, plug in the flashdrive,
go to My Computer and locate the drive, it will be something like Removable
Drive F, locate your file and save or copy it to My Documents or somewhere
and work on it from there.
Same with saving, when you're finished with it, save and close the file in
My Documents then save it unopened to the flash drive, it only takes a
couple of minutes.
Often files will work perfectly well directly from an external drive but the
one time they don't, the file gets corrupted and is therefore useless, flash
drives probably work better than say 3.5 floppies which were (an still are)
notorious for ruining files but its risky using them directly.
Regards,
Alan.

 

[StargateFan]

There's no reason not to use the flashdrive, just don't open save Excel
files to it directly. If you want to open your file, plug in the flashdrive,
go to My Computer and locate the drive, it will be something like Removable
Drive F, locate your file and save or copy it to My Documents or somewhere
and work on it from there.

Well, to me, that defeats the whole purpose of the flash drive. In
last week I've continued working with the files as I have been doing.
I've always been careful to close files immediately once I finish
working on them, so that should cut down the risk somewhat. In the
5-6 months I've been working in this manner, this is the first time
this has happened, so I can live with those odds. I make a nightly
backup anyway of these files. If one gets corrupted, no big deal, as
I found out. The info gets changed in this important one completely
once a week, so even less problem. I found a great little freeware
backup app that works well with the flash drive so it's no even more
automated thtan before.

Same with saving, when you're finished with it, save and close the file in
My Documents then save it unopened to the flash drive, it only takes a
couple of minutes.
Often files will work perfectly well directly from an external drive but the
one time they don't, the file gets corrupted and is therefore useless, flash
drives probably work better than say 3.5 floppies which were (an still are)
notorious for ruining files but its risky using them directly.

Hmmm, you're right. But good thing that we can figure out steps to
decrease risk and to keep things backed up. If I have to go back to
working off the hdd when saving, etc., the whole thing will start to
seem pointless. That's why I bought the thing to begin with <g>.

Thanks. Appreciate the help. D