File Being Used

[LeBaron Moseby]

Hi,

I recently had to reinstall Word and now am getting an error message that I
haven't seen and don't understand.

The message reads:

===========================================================
C;\...\Chart.doc is being used by LeBaron Moseby. Do you want to make a
copy?
==========================================================

I have looked but can't find the option that causes this message to be
generated. I am the only user on the machine.

Can you tell me how to cut it off and make sure no copy is generated?

Thanks.

LeBaron Moseby

 

[Graham Mayor]

It sounds as though the document is locked by an orphaned temp file (maybe
caused by the crash that prompted you to reinstall Word - which incidentally
is rarely necessary to fix most problems). See
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[LeBaron Moseby]

Dear Graham,

Thanks for your reply. I had to be out of town so I apologize for not
writing sooner.

I think you are making too much of my reinstalling Word and the "crash"
which had nothing to do with Word. You appear to have concluded that
Word crashed. It did not.

Most of my hard disk was lost due to problems from another program, Vicam's
VidCap. I was using it to set aside space for a capture file I was about
to record. The program hung and in the process overwrote large portions
of the disk including the boot sector, partition table and some of the
directory.
So I could not access the disk or boot it.

Fortunately I was able to salvage one partition - a small one, but not my
primary partition which had programs saved in it. So while I recovered some
significant data files, I had to reformat the damaged partition then
reinstall all
my programs. I am still reinstalling programs. The partition was 30 gig.
I have a backup tape of the partition but it is three months old and seemed
it
would be easier and cleaner to just reinstall a fresh copy of Word on the
newly formatted partition. I don't want to use the backup version, but I may
have to do it yet, especially if I don't find a fix for the current problem.

So back to my original problem and question. Today I discovered one factor
which may help to identify the problem. I only get the erroroneous message
when I
try to load the document by double clicking on the file name. If I load the
document from inside Word, i.e. open and load it using the drop down file
menu of Word,
no message and no problem. The document loads and opens as it should.

I tried making "Open" the default action in the folder options for the doc
file types.
I thought maybe it was using "New" instead. But even with "Open" as the
default
action, I still get the message claiming the file is in use by me and asking
if I want
to make a copy.

So any suggestions or fixes?

Thanks in advance,

LeBaron

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Did you read the article Graham referred you to? If you will not read that
one, then see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/DocInUse.htm, which will
tell you more or less the same thing.

 

[LeBaron Moseby]

Dear Suzanne,

I deleted all files with *.tmp extension. There were no files found with
~$*.do?

Still the problem persists.

I did read Graham's link and the second one you sent. I can't find any
files of the
format suggested on the disk and so do not believe I have any left over
files locking anything. Actually I have never seen Word crash since I
installed Windows XP a couple years ago. I even made two new files and
saved them on the desktop. I immediately encountered the same problem -
when the file is double clicked same erroneous message. When opened the file
is opened from within Word works fine, i.e. no messages. These are brand new
files just created and saved on the desktop. Nothing untoward happened
with Word. I got no messages about incorrectly closing Word, etc.

While I never was able to find any files of with names picked up with the
wildcard ~$*.do?, some of the temp files found would not delete
immediately. They
apparently were in use by programs running at the startup. So I ran
msconfig and
disabled all start programs and was then able to delete all *.tmp files.

Since I was running Norton Protection (I usually do), the deleted files
just got
moved to the unprotected space. To really delete them I had to disabled all
of Norton's protections and delete them again.

I also ran a two utilities to make sure the registry was okay, especially
the file types section. I used Registry Mechanic from PC Magazine and
Norton WinDoc 2002. I even optimized the registry and ran Norton's
defrag - Speed Disk. Speed disk won't run if any problems with directory.
So that is okay. I even tried turning off the DDE links for the file type
and made the open instruction the default command started with the file
types. Fortunately I used system restore to reset the parameters after
trying each of these changes. Nothing worked and the system is back to the
state it was the day I wrote my first request for help last week.

I have read everything you suggested and done everything mentioned and MORE.

Still the problem persists. Do you have any other suggestions?

LeBaron

 

[TF]

Are you using Norton Anti Virus? Disable the Office Plug-in under NAV. If
you are using Norton anything else, then check out the Norton site because
there are loads of Norton related bugs the bugger up Word and other Office
Apps.



: Dear Suzanne,
:
: I deleted all files with *.tmp extension. There were no files found with
: ~$*.do?
:
: Still the problem persists.
:
: I did read Graham's link and the second one you sent. I can't find any
: files of the
: format suggested on the disk and so do not believe I have any left over
: files locking anything. Actually I have never seen Word crash since I
: installed Windows XP a couple years ago. I even made two new files and
: saved them on the desktop. I immediately encountered the same problem -
: when the file is double clicked same erroneous message. When opened the
file
: is opened from within Word works fine, i.e. no messages. These are brand
new
: files just created and saved on the desktop. Nothing untoward happened
: with Word. I got no messages about incorrectly closing Word, etc.
:
: While I never was able to find any files of with names picked up with the
: wildcard ~$*.do?, some of the temp files found would not delete
: immediately. They
: apparently were in use by programs running at the startup. So I ran
: msconfig and
: disabled all start programs and was then able to delete all *.tmp files.
:
: Since I was running Norton Protection (I usually do), the deleted files
: just got
: moved to the unprotected space. To really delete them I had to disabled
all
: of Norton's protections and delete them again.
:
: I also ran a two utilities to make sure the registry was okay, especially
: the file types section. I used Registry Mechanic from PC Magazine and
: Norton WinDoc 2002. I even optimized the registry and ran Norton's
: defrag - Speed Disk. Speed disk won't run if any problems with directory.
: So that is okay. I even tried turning off the DDE links for the file type
: and made the open instruction the default command started with the file
: types. Fortunately I used system restore to reset the parameters after
: trying each of these changes. Nothing worked and the system is back to
the
: state it was the day I wrote my first request for help last week.
:
: I have read everything you suggested and done everything mentioned and
MORE.
:
: Still the problem persists. Do you have any other suggestions?
:
: LeBaron
:
:
:

 

[LeBaron Moseby]

Dear Terry,

I am running Office 97 and the Office Plug-in seems to be for 2000 and
above.

So the plug-in has never been checked or loaded. Yes you are so right
Norton does screw up a machine in more ways than I can count.

LeBaron

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You mentioned double-clicking on the file. I assume you don't have Windows
set to respond to a single click?

 

[RobR]

Try to find out which process uses Chart.doc. You can use
mst IsUsedBy (http://www.mstsoftware.com) for that. It's freeware.