CD-Rs: What did they do to my files?

Factual Questions
1

I have a lot of older documents created in MS Works, an integrated software package containing a watered-down version of Word, Excel Spreadsheet, and Access Database. These files can be pulled into the full-blown version of their respective software…which I now have. Well, at least I had no trouble in the past with pulling files into Word and Excel.

But, now saved on CD, these old files can’t be opened by anything! Granted, I am now using Windows 2000 instead of Winodws 98. And, MS Word is for Windows 2000, as well. Still, why is it having so much trouble? I can’t even open the files containing text (but not *.txt files) with the “Notepad” accessory! Why? (Usually, in Notepad, you’ll get the text with, perhaps, a bunch of ASCII characters.)

What happened? Is it the new operating system? Lastly, I even tried to open these files in MS Works re-installed on the machine. Although it claims not be compatable, it installed ok and runs fine. Yet, not even MS-Works can open these files!

What happened here? Could the process of burning the CD-R have corrupted these files? Please help! - Jinx

2

do you have a compatibility wizard in your accessories section
if so it may then be able to create temp files to access those you have on the cd

3

actually i have some works drawing files which have the tag WPW which wont come up with my XP version of MS Works
i should take my own advice…:slight_smile:

4

Is this Wizard in the “Accessories” under the Start button, or is it a wizard feature within Word and/or Excel? Also, if I don’t have it under “Accessories”, do you know if there is a free download available? Thanks, Jinx

5

Are you trying to open the files directly from the CD? (it sounds like it).

Some applications won’t let you do that because the files on the CD will be read-only and the application wants to write something to the file immediately on opening (like a ‘last opened’ date or other data that may be application-specific).

CDs are great for archiving, but not really suitable for keeping ‘live’ files - Try copying them to a temporary folder on your hard drive and see if you can open them from there. (you’ll probably have to unset the ‘read only’ attribute too, as copying via CD seems to set this automatically.

6

mine is under the start button then accessories then the wizard
i have office 97 and mistakenly thought i needed to set the compatibility for win95…that was not the case and i have cancelled the file commands in properties and compatibility
i have been looking at my WPW files for works but now notice my XP works doesnt have a section under which i did the drawings on the win98 works and i dont have the cd to load it again
sorry about the above not being of any help.
a real expert will be along soon…
cheers:)

7

Make sure your CDs have those files first.

8

Also once you copy them from CD to your hard drive make sure you remove the read-only property. Some CD software automatically changes files to read-only when they are written to CD. I’ve had this happen with Access files and it took me a few minutes to figure out what happened.

9

By this, what do you mean, exactly? Perhaps you mean to make sure the correct CD is in the drive, and the screen is refreshed (assuming I have Windows Explorer open)? Or, do you mean to say the CD might be bad? Not sure what you mean exactly…

  • Jinx
10

Thanks, Manegout! I will try this, but I think the PC wouldn’t even allow me to move them from CD-R onto the hard drive. Not sure if I am remembering correctly…will try, try again to make sure what the EXACT story is - applying your advice, too. - Jinx

11

Yes, I will follow your advice to see if this is part of the problem, too! Thanks, Opengrave…what a cheerful name you’ve picked for yourself. Do you know Herman and Lilly Munster, by any chance?

  • Jinx
12

I sincerely hope this isn’t your problem, but the only time I had this problem was with a bad burn. (Writing too fast with crappy cheap CDRs.)

13

I think what’s happened is you used DirectCD (drag & drop) to create them in Windows 98. Windows 2000 (before Service Pack 2) can’t read files created by DirectCD under Win98 because of the way it writes the file via drag & drop. After I upgraded to Win2K I couldn’t read any of my CDRs that I created w/DirectCD in Win98. The only thing I could do was to read & reburn them on a Win98 machine without using DirectCD (i.e. actually using the EasyCD app).

Check out the Microsoft info…

I can’t remember if I’ve tried reading any of my old CDRs since applying SP2 so I’m not sure if this works.

14

did you close the cd after you wrote it?

15

Is the filename correct on the CD, including the extension? Some burning software will truncate long filenames without telling you, and if the extension was lost, the files won’t be associated with Works or Office anymore. If that’s what happened, you can copy them to the hard drive and rename them.