About two weeks ago I wrote asking about a stubborn Excel file with census compilations that I have stored on a floppy disk. I may not have been specific enough about the problem for any of you to recognize what the problem might be and what solution might work. I want to try again to see if anyone has an 'Aha moment' and gets me straightened out before I spend hours reentering all of that information. The Excel file stored on the floppy disk was created by the excel program currently on my computer, so I don't think there's a compatibility problem between the excel file and the excel program that should, theoretically, be opening and reading it. When I try to open the excel file with census entries, I get a message that says I can no longer access it. I don't think the floppy is bad because I can access another excel file that is on the same floppy. The exact message I get is "(file) cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or the server the document is stored on may not be responding." When I go on to something else, the floppy drive continues to cycle on and off, making noises that make me think my computer is maybe still trying to open the file. This continues for as long as the floppy disk is in the A: drive. Although I didn't make this file read only, it seems that files somehow magically become 'read only' so I right clicked on the file and went to properties to be sure the file had not become read only. It hadn't. But even then, if it had become read only, why couldn't I open it? I'm not trying to change it when I simply want to open it. Does anyone know why a file wouldn't open if it is designated read only? My second thought was that the file lost its file association so I right clicked on the file, clicked 'open as', and clicked on excel as the program to use to open the file in order to renew the association of that file to the excel program. That didn't help either. Then I thought that maybe only sector/s of the floppy that hold that file are bad, so I tried dragging that file from the A:/ directory to my Documents folder on C:/ drive on my laptop. That accomplished, it still wouldn't open... even going through the steps of checking to be sure the read only status had somehow been magically changed and then trying 'open as'. I got a message "File format is not valid" despite trying to open this as an excel document. Wouldn't that restore the file association to excel if that is what was lost? I am using Windows 98. Are there any additional steps I can try to get this file to open and be accessible? What do you think might be causing this to happen? What am I missing that will enable me to open and access this file? Thank you so much for thinking about what might be wrong and what I might try to be able to access this file. Marie --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.760 / Virus Database: 509 - Release Date: 9/10/2004