A client of ours has one particular file that has some very strange
behavior as described below. This only occurs with the one particular
file and the behavior is consistent across different PC's in both their
office and ours. All other Excel files in both offices work fine.

Here's what happens:

- you can use Windows Explorer to copy the file between drives without
a problem (as expected)

- if you open the file in Excel on one drive then save it back to that
same drive with either the same file name or a different file name, the
file works fine (as expected)

- if you open the file in Excel on one drive then do a "Save As" to
save it to a *different* drive with either the same file name or a
different file name (in default .xls format), the new file causes
errors in Excel every time you open it as per below (weird!)

- even if you do a "Save As" and choose a different format eg Excel
97-2003 or Excel 95, the error behavior is consistent (weird!)

What happens when opening the Save As version is:
- you open the file (using either Excel or Windows Explorer)
- the Enable Macros dialog box appears twice (with non "save as"
versions, this only appears once as normal)
- an error message appears stating that:
"Errors were detected in the file but Microsoft Office Excel was able
to open the file by making the repairs listed below. Save the file to
make these repairs permanent."

In the error log txt file, we get:


"Microsoft Office Excel File Repair Log

Errors were detected in file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Jeff Robson\My
Documents\test.xls'
The following is a list of repairs:

Damage to the file was so extensive that repairs were not possible.
Excel attempted to recover your formulas and values, but some data may
have been lost or corrupted."


When Excel "repairs" the file, it strips out all the formatting and
formulas, leaving you with just a series of sheets with hard-coded
numbers (not a particularly useful repair job!).

We're running Excel 2003 on WinXP (SP2) however the behavior is
consistent on Excel 2002 as well (haven't tested other versions).

Any ideas? Anyone seen this kind of behavior before?

Weird!

Jeff Robson
www.mailbarrow.com