I have tracked down this much,
The cells in the smaller file had dead / invalid hyper links. They most
likely were introduced when parts of the master file were originally cut &
pasted to make the new smaller file, the cells changed but the hyper link
never removed. When a cell in this condition was cut and pasted back into the
master it corrupted the entire hyper link listing of the worksheet. Whole
block of empty cells now had hyper links, mostly invalid and not displayed in
the cell.
So with the why question answered I now need to find out how to delete ALL
hyper links without removing the cell contents. If I find it I will post it
back here.


"PboB" wrote:

Hello
I have two Excel files, the main file is ~1MB and the other is 43KB. When I
Cut and Paste between the two the system takes 2 minutes to complete the C&P
operation. After several C&P the delay is in the 10+ min range. If I save and
exit the file the master is now over 10MB. Each operation is no more then 1
or 2 cells at a time, the cells are text only. If I cut from the cell but
enter on the formula bar, 1 cell at a time, I have no problem. I do this
operation all the time and have never had this problem before. I am assuming
it is from the smaller Excel file but cannot find a problem with it.
Thanks