Rob

Maybe this problem, although you say you tried on anther computer.

Excel stores in Windows\Temp(win98) folder a copy(s) of any file that is open.

Sometimes this *.tmp file is not deleted from the Temp folder when you close
out Excel(maybe a crash of Excel?) or the file, so Excel thinks it is still
open and in use.

You can try a re-boot and see if that clears it up. If not, after a re-boot,
clear out your Windows\Temp folder.

If using WinXP your Temp folder would be under user.......

Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp

If on a network, re-booting the server may be the only solution other than
copying the data to a new workbook.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 08:34:03 -0700, RobC wrote:

I have an Excel 97 spreadsheet that I cannot now access. It was working
perfectly well one day, but when I came to use it the next I got the
following message...

'Golf.xls' 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.

The file isn't read-only, it is not in a read-only location, and it is not
stored on a server.

I've used the file for a number of years. It's fairly large (just over
1MB), but contains simple calculations. It has approx 20worksheets.

I cannot open it, or copy it. I've tried opeing it in Word, WordPad,
NotePad, OpenOrg (which I downloaded), and Excel Viewer - all to no avail.

Does anyone know what is causing the problem, and how to resolve it ?

Regards,
Rob

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP