HELP: can no longer open excel file in XP

[dsmith_2010]

All,

I have a 1.3 meg spreadsheet file in excel (office XP suite). I used
the password protection feature to keep others who share my PC from
being able to open the file at will. Worked fine for a few weeks.

Now when I try to open the file I get the standard message saying file
cannot be accessed... may be read-only... server may be busy.... NONE
of which are true. Excel does not even ask for the password -- never
gets that far. Other excel file open just fine.

How do I force excel to open this file? Is there a switch I can
include with the filename that includes the password ? can I extract
the data? This is a very important file. Any help will be GREATLY
appreciated. TIA,

David

PS., This is my first time trying to open since installing IE 7 beta 3.

 

[N10]

HI

Have you checked the attributes of the file with file properties ?


N10

 

[dsmith_2010]

YES, I have checked the attributes using file properties. The only
attribute set is archive. The file still will not open if I uncheck
this attribute.

Any additional ideas would be GREATLY appreciated. The file was last
accessed 10 days ago. TIA

 

[Tim Williams]

Can you make a copy of the file?

 

[NickHK]

If the file corrupt and Excel cannot open it, many report OpenOffice (free
download) is successful.

NickHK

 

[dsmith_2010]

Yes, I can make a copy and I have tried Open Office with no success. I
tried another excel repair utility that reported an error in the file
header but, was unable to repair as the file is password protected.

Is there any way to recover or repair a damaged file header? TIA.

--David

 

[NickHK]

If the data is in tables and you don't mind losing the formating etc, you
<<may>> be able pull the info out with ADO.
But given your lack off success with other methods, I'd be surprised.
As for repairing the header, you're welcome to try and understand the Excel
file format and poke around the bits. Frankly, if Excel, OpenOffice, your
repair utility et al are unable to deal with the corruption, I wouldn't hold
out too much hope. But it depends on how much you value of data.

NickHK

 

[dsmith_2010]

Indeed. It appears I am SOL. Thanks for the input.

--David

 

[dsmith_2010]

Indeed. It appears I am SOL. Thanks for the input.

--David