I made backups of my data prior to a reinstall of OS some time ago. I did not use a backup utility, just copied the files to a dvd-r. I am using the same version of Office 2003 from the same disk.

I have been able to recover most of the files from the dvd-r, except the files in one folder. That includes .doc, .xls, .txt & jpeg
this folder was modified in 2005 but I do not think that is the issue because some other folders were modified earlier and others later and I am able to access them.
The only thing that I can think of is that the folder was corrupted before I saved it to dvd.

I cannot open the files in one folder.
I cannot copy the files to the hdd because they cannot be read.
I cannot rename them or do anything else with them.

The error when opening the .doc says:
check the file permissions for the document or drive
make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space
open the file with the text recovery converter.

Permissions are ok.
Memory is ok.

could not find a text converter installed so further investigation of word help suggests:
The file you are attempting to open may require a file converter that is not installed on your computer. Most converters are already installed, but optional converters are available from the Add or Remove Programs utility (in Control Panel) for your version of Office (requires performing an advanced customization install and searching the feature tree for Office Shared Features \ Converters and Filters). Other converters are available from the Office Resource Kit. Search the www.microsoft.com Web site for "Office Converter Pack".
I downloaded a converter and ran it but it made no difference.

My next steps were:
uninstall office.
reboot.
run ccleaner on windows several times until there were no errors left.
run ccleaner on registry until there were no errors showing.
rechecked using glary registry cleaner.
rebooted.
installed office 2003 again.
tried the .doc again, no luck.
installed office converter pack (oconvpck.exe)
tried the .doc again, no luck.

I've tried everything that I can think of. I'm open to any suggestions as I do need these files.

thanks in advance.

This is a permission problem and it is quite common with backed up files as long as the files or folder are not green then you should be able to take ownership of them and be able to access them again.

Please see link below for to change ownership of the files.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

Diire, Thanks for the reply unfortunately I am unable to follow the directions. The directions said:



When I right click and select properties, there is no security tab. Only General and sharing!

On the General tab, I can only change attributes - Read-only, Hidden & Archive. They are set to Read-only.

On the Sharing Tab, the options are Do not Share this folder & Share this folder. It was set to Do not share this folder. Because there was no other recourse, I changed the option to Share this folder and then set the User Limit to Maximum Allowed. That did not help either so I set everything back to the way it was.

I get the same problem whether I am right clicking the folder or individual files. If it is a permissions problem then I would suspect it to be at the folder level as all the files and sub-folders below that cannot be accessed.

These files are on a DVD-R so I am not sure that I would be able to do this. I do see the security tab when I look at a folder on the HDD but not when I look at a folder on the DVD.

I cannot copy to HDD because it says it cannot read the files. If it is a permissions problem, should I be able to copy them even if I cannot access them?

again, thanks in advance for any help.

You obviously have XP Home. Please see the link below for how to get the security tab in XP Home.

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties

I think the problem is bigger than this.

As I said, I uninstalled Office, ran ccleaner several times on the hdd and registry to make sure that everything was clean before I reinstalled Office.

This morning I was going to set up Outlook again as it should have been deleted along with Office, right???

When I clicked on Outlook, it popped right up as if nothing had happened. I did not need to configure it. Everything was the same as before.

Should Outlook have disappeared when I uninstalled Office?
Outlook is part of Office?
Should I have had to reconfigure Outlook after installing Office.

This is the way it used to be. If that is the case then Office did not clear completely out of the registry despite all of my efforts.

Am I right on this???

Thanks

For some reason outlook profiles don't uninstall when you uninstall office. When you next reinstall it - all your profiles are back as though you never uninstalled it.

It may have something to do with the system restore feature of windows, perhaps if you disable system restore and then uninstall office and delete the profile it may go completely - but unless its a problem I'd just leave it. You will still need to download and install that file as per the instructions above if you want to get access to your files.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't read one your posts above correctly. One other thing you can try is to log in with the Administrator account. You may be able to copy the files across and then change the permissions to be able to read them.