The document name or path is not valid

[Guest]

I have been putting together a large presentation (last version was 2,658
kB). I saved it to a memory stick and took it home to work on. I added to it
but did not copy the additional changes over the original. When I got to work
today I tried to open the 2,658 kB file and it came back with
"The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
*check the file permissions for the document or drive.
*Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document." and it proceeds to
give me the path where it is located. I have tried getting others to open the
file, checked to see if the file would open on my notebook that I used to
work on it last night and even rebooted my computer and nothing has worked.
What has happened?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi freely001

You are probably suffering from the problems associated with saving a Word
document to any removable media. When Word opens a document, it also creates
a whole lot of temporary files in the same folder as the document. It uses
these files when you're working on the document. When you save the document,
it creates a few more. With such a large file, the space required for those
documents would be large.

Two things might have happened:
1. Word might have run out of space.
or
2. If you don't properly shut down a memory stick using the control on the
Windows taskbar, then Windows does not close all the files.

So the lessons are:
1. When you want to take a document home to work on it, save it to your hard
disk, then use Windows Explorer to copy it to the memory stick. At home, use
Windows Explorer to copy it from the memory stick to the hard drive of your
computer, and work on it there. Never use Word to open a document from a
memory stick, and don't use Word to save it to the memory stick.

2. Before you pull a memory stick out of its USB slot, make sure you shut
down the device. There will be a little green icon near the clock.
Right-click it to shut down the memory stick.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Guest]

Hi Shauna Kelly,

i also have this problem, but we get it with using Windows Terminal Service
to doing Mail Merge, even all the path and permission is check on the server
all are done. so we test on our own pc is ok, after mail merge the file size
is 50KB only.

i have ask my friend to recopy it according to ur artical. hope is helpful
to us.

From Lai Ming Hoe

 

[Guest]

Hi there.
I have exactly the same problem with opening a Word document
"The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
*check the file permissions for the document or drive.
*Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document." and it proceeds to
give me the path where it is located"

It is a small document, only 35kb. But it has happened to 4 or 5 small
documents. I always close down the pen drive so i don't know why this
happens!!
Shauna gave advice in how to prevent it happening again, but is there any
way of retrieving the documents? You didn't mention if there was. Also, how
do you use Windows explorer to copy it to your memory stick. Do you mean,
save it on your hard drive, then drag it onto your hard drive window and then
close down properly?
Thanks for your help in advance, DJ

 

[Guest]

Hi there.
I have exactly the same problem with opening a Word document
"The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
*check the file permissions for the document or drive.
*Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document." and it proceeds to
give me the path where it is located"

It is a small document, only 35kb. But it has happened to 4 or 5 small
documents. I always close down the pen drive so i don't know why this
happens!!
Shauna gave advice in how to prevent it happening again, but is there any
way of retrieving the documents? You didn't mention if there was. Also, how
do you use Windows explorer to copy it to your memory stick. Do you mean,
save it on your hard drive, then drag it onto your hard drive window and then
close down properly?
Thanks for your help in advance, DJ

 

[Charles Kenyon]

If you want to be able to use your documents, when working within Word, act
as if your removable media drives do not exist! (This applies to floppy
drives, CDRW/CDR, flash drives, memory sticks or DVDR drives as well as any
other kind of removable media drives.)
Don't use Word to:
Open a document on removable media
Print a document on a removable media
Edit a document on a removable media
Save a document to a removable media (not even a copy)

Word regularly trashes documents on removable media drives!

Instead, work on the document using your hard drive. Copy it back and forth
using Windows. This means open windows for different drives / folders and
copy back and forth by ctrl-drag or copy and paste.

Your existing documents may be irretrievable. They are probably corrupt. See
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/document_corruption.htm for some ideas.

--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

If you want to be able to use your documents, when working within Word, act
as if your removable media drives do not exist! (This applies to floppy
drives, CDRW/CDR, flash drives, memory sticks or DVDR drives as well as any
other kind of removable media drives.)
Don't use Word to:
Open a document on removable media
Print a document on a removable media
Edit a document on a removable media
Save a document to a removable media (not even a copy)

Word regularly trashes documents on removable media drives!

Instead, work on the document using your hard drive. Copy it back and forth
using Windows. This means open windows for different drives / folders and
copy back and forth by ctrl-drag or copy and paste.

Your existing documents may be irretrievable. They are probably corrupt. See
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/document_corruption.htm for some ideas.

--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Guest]

Looks like this has been a while, but I ran accross it looking for the
solution myself. Someone else recommended to re-register Word by clicking on
Start/Run and type "winword /r". I did this and it fixed my problem.

 

[redsoxman]

Looks like this has been a while, but I ran accross it looking for the
solution myself. Someone else recommended to re-register Word by clicking on
Start/Run and type "winword /r". I did this and it fixed my problem.

:

winword does not show as a valid command. When I find the winword.exe
file, the "winword/r" is not valid.

 

[Guest]

Make sure you put a space after "winword" and before "/r".

 

[Guest]

Hi Shauna,

Ur response refers to documents saved on a removable media. In my case - it
was the hard disk (these dont get disconnected, do they?)

Request if u can go thru the content below and opine your views. I am pretty
put off with the way word has acted up y'day - and recreating the whole
thought process and consequent document is a pain ... Can this be simulated
by you. As corrective action - will reducing the auto save frequency help? Is
this document recoverable? Are there tools available on the net for word
document recovery/rebuild?

Thx & Rgds,
Kiran Bajaj

Case
I have just been working on a doc since noon
Copy of RefDoc– Operating Model and Governance Framework for Development
Factory.doc. The doc is 383 KB in size.

At 19:00hrs i got a freak passing message - something like too many edits ....

The application closed and now i get this message

The document name or path is not valid
Try one or more of the following:
* Check the path to make sure it was typed correctly
* On the file menu, click on open. Search for the file using this dialog box

I click ok and nothing happens .. boom..

I have racking my brains out - since morning on this one - and had reached
90% completion levels on the doc. Can some one help me on how to recover this
file. MS Word experts come to my rescue

Rgds,
KB.

End Case

 

[TK]

I just had this problem in Vista with Word 2002 (with SP3 = and I seem to be
uptodate with the automatic updates). The file was saved to the hard disk
and it will not open!

The first time this happened I had saved it once then I walked away from the
computer after making more edits and the computer did an autorestart due to
an update.

The second time it happened, I walked away came back, tried to attach it to
an email, then tried to open the attachment before sending the file and it
gave me the error.

This is very frustrating.

 

[Smookey]

After 2 days looking for the answer this did the trick, Word couldn't resolve
de spaces and other characters while I tried to open a document.

Thnx!