Word 2003 Corrupted Files

[Cags]

I'm writing my dissertation and I'm saving to a memory stick, an external,
portable hard drive, and to a file I've created. I'm only on page 28 but
every now and then when I click on the "save" button I'll get a message that
tells me to check to see if the door is properly closed if saving to a cd or
floppy and then the files become corrupted and ultimately lost from the
source I was saving to. I'm using StyleEase in Word 2003 and have never had a
problem before. Could it be Norton Antivirus 2007?

 

[Jay Freedman]

I'm writing my dissertation and I'm saving to a memory stick, an
external, portable hard drive, and to a file I've created. I'm only
on page 28 but every now and then when I click on the "save" button
I'll get a message that tells me to check to see if the door is
properly closed if saving to a cd or floppy and then the files become
corrupted and ultimately lost from the source I was saving to. I'm
using StyleEase in Word 2003 and have never had a problem before.
Could it be Norton Antivirus 2007?

No, it's the memory stick. Never save a Word document directly to, or open a
document directly from, any form of removable storage. Always save to the
hard drive, close the document (thus closing all temporary files associated
with it), and then copy the file to the memory stick. Always copy the file
back to the hard drive to work on it.

The risk of document corruption is real. The percentage isn't very high, but
why take chances with your dissertation?

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Terry Farrell]

An addition to Jay's excellent advice: work on and save the document on your
local hard drive. When you need to back up to your external HDD or put it
onto your memory stick, use File, SaveAs, right-click on the file and use
Send To XXX which will COPY the file across to the selected location. This
is faster and infinitely safer than trying to save to the removable media.

 

[Cags]

I did not know that! Thank you very much for the outstanding advice.

 

[Cags]

Terry,
Thank you very much for the help. This will save me a great deal of
frustration (and swearing).