Re: Word 2003 Keeps Crashing

From: Beth Melton (bmelton_at_NoSpam4Memvps.org)
Date: 11/23/04 

Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:16:06 -0600

If your computer instructor taught you to use the floppy disks
exclusively then I'd say your computer instructor didn't have much
"real world" experience with Word. If he or she did they would have
encountered file corruption at some point. As an instructor myself
this is one of the first things I train in my Word classes since I
encountered this long ago.

Training to work directly off a floppy is like telling a business
person they must work exclusively out of their briefcase and aren't
allow to remove a file. A floppy disk is a means of transporting a
file much like a briefcase. Just as you should take files out of your
briefcase and spread them out on your desk so you have room to work
you should take the file off the floppy and work with it on your local
drive because Word needs room to work as well.

Aside from the various temp files it creates in the same location as
the document, when you save a document Word creates a temp file with
all of your modifications since the last save, deletes the original,
and moves the temp file to take the original document's place. IOW
when you save there are two copies of the file on the floppy disk at
that given time. If you are running short of space Word will do as
much as it can but if it doesn't have enough room there is no place to
go so it ends the transaction. You may encounter a message but then
again you may not depending on what specifically is happening at the
time.

In any event, I don't know why you don't encounter the "A:\ Drive not
available" message. I suspect it has to do with the way Word searches
for the temp files. They've made a lot of changes to how Word accesses
files through the years in order to optimize processing. I know you
don't want to hear this but the only way to truly prevent it from ever
happening again is to not work directly off a floppy.

Instead you should double-click My Computer to open it and route to
the Floppy. Make sure you have a Restored window (you should be able
to see part of the Desktop) then drag/drop the file from the Floppy
window to the Desktop. Then double-click to open the file and start
Word.

Once you're finished editing and after the file is closed then
right-click the file and select Send to/3 1/2" Floppy. Once the copy
is complete then just drag the file from the Desktop to the Recycle
bin. If you use this method I believe you'll find that response time
while working in the document is faster than working directly off the
floppy. Not to mention your chances of a corrupt file will have
substantially decreased. :-) 

-- 
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for 
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
"Jane Tutor" <JaneTutor@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:845716C0-BADB-49A8-8E64-6EB07CD838E8@microsoft.com...
>
> This is all news to me.  I was taught to use floppy disks 
> exclusively in my
> computer classes.  I have always used floppy disks when I create 
> documents
> and then open and work on those documents right from the disk 
> whenever I need
> to.
>
> So, why does Word keep spinning the disk and it wont stop?  It used 
> to have
> a box that popped up that said the A drive was not accessible when 
> I've
> removed a disk.  Now I can't open a file, or even close Word by 
> clicking on
> "File" at the top of the Word window, without having to shut down 
> the entire
> computer.  Is there a way to get it to stop searching for the disk 
> if it ever
> happens again?
>
> Jane

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