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Problems opening Microsoft Office files

By floringeorge2001 ·
As an administrator I am facing a problem with one computer of one of our employees . Some of the Microsoft Office files can not be opened/copied /moved anymore.When trying to do this we received messages such as:
a) "cannot copy file: File system error ( 1148)"
b) "connot move file: File system error ( 1148)"
c)"Cannot find file '(null)' ( or one of its components).Make sure the pathe and filename are correct and that all requiered libraries are available"
d)I tried also to read the properties of the respective files in order to change the permissions and /or the ownership of the respective files, but it was impossible.The message I received was " Properties are not available".

An additional information is that during the past 9 month the former network administrator performed many changes of the company's domain on the server and the previous user log-on profiles have been modified and I am wondering if the problem I am facing in opening the respetive files is related to the fact that those files were previously created under the former domain's user log-ons
I shlould mention also that it seems that the respective computer has the Microsoft Office corrupted since we are facing also the following problem: when we try to open some Office files (Excel, Word , Powerpoint... ) we receive the message "Preparing to install"...and only after 2-3 clicks on the "cancel" command of the respective message we were able to enter in the Word/excel/Powerpoint programs and then when clicking again on the respective files we were able to opened them eventually.
Also I was able to make functional on the respective computer the Windows automatic update only but not the Office update that are available on the Microsoft web site. I tried several time to use the Office update facility on the Microsoft web site but each try has failed and the message recieved form the respective web site was related to the Windows Journal Viewer and Windows Installer.
It seems also that in the previous months the antivirus program that was installed on the respective desktop did not functioned properly so I am wondering if our problems was generated by a virus /worm.
I would appreciate any support in fixing these problems since the respective files contain valuable information for our company.
Many thanks in advance.

George

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office problems ...

by wratz In reply to Problems opening Microsof ...

I have seen problems very similar to that lately because of two reasons:
1. bad product/serial/reg # with Windows XP (H/P).
2.trojan horse called "Win32.SillyDI.xxxx" that
wreaked havoc on the office files and plain text
files.

Update virus dat files, then boot into safe mode to scan all.

Hopefully this works for you.
Good Luck.

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Thanks

by floringeorge2001 In reply to office problems ...

Thanks everybody for your support.I really appreciated.I am evaluating all the suggestions and I hope my problem will be solved.
Best regards to you all.

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Did you try...

by pbg_61 In reply to Problems opening Microsof ...

Did you try first deleting all the files and folders in the temp folders including the ones in the olk* folder then defrag and run chkdsk. After that then try to run a repair on Office. Next if that fails you can uninstall Office with out loosing the clients data and reinstall.

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Got a Spare?

by Pascal Verdieu In reply to Problems opening Microsof ...

Format a spare computer and make a clean install (Windows, Office, AV & Updates) then try from that computer. At least then you could pinpoint if it's a software problem or if the file is kaput.

Another problem I've had with files come from deeply nested folders, very long filenames and/or special characters (my French users are using accented charaters in their filenames all too often). If it's a deeply nested folder, try a subst.

If all else fails, long live backups!

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Virus replaces important office files

by rapell In reply to Got a Spare?

I have had that problem in my domain-twice so far and i have found the simple solution is to uninstall office using the windows clean uninstall utility, which totally removes any program that uses the windows installer, select the problem programs and uninstall. If you dont have it, you can download free from the net. after that, reinstall office and your documents should be able to open. Nice computing.

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Virus replaces important office files/registry settings

by rapell In reply to Got a Spare?

I have had that problem in my domain-twice so far and i have found the simple solution is to uninstall office using the windows clean uninstall utility, which totally removes any program that uses the windows installer, select the problem programs and uninstall. If you dont have it, you can download free from the net. after that, reinstall office and your documents should be able to open. Nice computing.

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Files not opening fix

by lindleyo3 In reply to Problems opening Microsof ...

This deals only with the files that won't open problem. I had a similar situation: The administrator of the computer could open an Office file by double clicking it, but all other users would get the "preparing to install.." error. The quick and easy fix for this is for each person that encounters this (on each new computer) to do the following first:

Click on Start then find "New Office Document"

As soon as this has opened up once, your user will not get this error when double clicking a file.
Unfortunately, each user has to do this on each machine they use.

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files that will not open

by sys analyst In reply to Files not opening fix

We have had a variety of problems with files that will not open, and so am offering a variety of help suggestions.
First would be as suggested above to repair or completely reinstall your office application. (a clean uninstall and reinstall is best because repair rarely fixes anything) Make sure that you go the custom install route, and choose "install all options to hard drive" because it might be stuck on trying to install something that was not in the original install.
Second it could be as you seem to suggest, a corrupt user profile. Go in as administrator to the computer and rename the user profile folder to usernameold so that you do not lose any user data. Then remove the user from the computer and readd them so that they will get a new folder. Then you can recopy data from old folder to new folder.
One more suggestion
when a file is corrupt and no computer will open it, I have sometimes been able to save the file by opening it with "quick view" which is part of the Corel suite, once quick view opens it, you can then copy and paste the data to a new document.
hope this helps
k

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