Office 2010 Can't Open Or Save Documents in My Documents Folder

[trippb]

I've experienced this problem twice in the past week. Here is my current problem:

New Windows 8 computer
Moved Office 2010 install from old computer to new computer
Copied all documents to new computer by installing the old drive in the new computer (NTFS to NTFS)

When trying to open any DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, or PPTX files that are stored in the Documents folder I get permission errors. Word will open an RTF file just fine. If I try to use any Office programs to save a file to the Documents folder, I also get permission errors. I can move the file to the Desktop and work with it just fine. I can then move it back to the Documents folder.

Here are the errors when trying to open files:
Word - Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges
Excel - 'C:\Users\xxxxxx\Documents\Book1.xlsx' could not be found
Powerpoint - The path or file name for C:\Users\xxxxxx\Documents\Presentation1.pptx is invalid.

When I try to use one of these programs to save to the Documents folder, I get the following error:
You don't have permission to save in this location.

I tried copying the files two different ways to eliminate any lingering NTFS permissions. I used a linux box to copy from the old drive to EXT4, then to a linux formatted FAT drive. I plugged this FAT drive into the Windows machine and moved the files over but got the same errors. Next, I copied the files from the old drive to a FAT32 drive using another Windows box. Then I tool the FAT32 drive back to the new computer and copied the files to the Documents folder. I received the same errors.

Last week I had the same problem with slightly different circumstances. A Windows 7 computer had a failed hard drive. We installed a new drive and copied the data to the new drive. We tried all the same methods of copying with no luck. Finally, we wiped the computer clean and reinstalled Windows. When we copied the data over the last time, we used the linux box to copy all the data to the FAT drive and then plugged that drive into the computer.

I don't want to reinstall Windows on a brand new machine. What is going wrong?

 

[USAFRet]

New Windows 8 computer
Moved Office 2010 install from old computer to new computer
Copied all documents to new computer by installing the old drive in the new computer (NTFS to NTFS)

What method did you use to "move Office"?

 

[trippb]

What method did you use to "move Office"?

It was a proper reinstall from media using the same product key.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Has nothing to do with the Office installation. Check the NTFS permissions and ownership of the Documents folder. If you simply dragged the Documents folder from the old disk to the new you may have screwed up permissions.

 

[USAFRet]

Has nothing to do with the Office installation. Check the NTFS permissions and ownership of the Documents folder. If you simply dragged the Documents folder from the old disk to the new you may have screwed up permissions.

+1^

 

[r-sky]

Can't you go to the security tab of your documents folder and get control of it? I had the same when I restored from a backup to my new machine...

 

[trippb]

Both computers had fresh installations of Windows. By default, Desktop and Documents have the same ownership and permissions. I've confirmed this is the case on both computers. When I copied the files, I tried using FAT and EXT4 partitions as intermediate storage areas. These file systems strip off all NTFS permissions. When the data was copied back to the computer, it would not have any permissions to come along with it. The only permissions would be inherited from the folder and its parent. I still attempted to change permissions and ownership in various ways but it never made a difference. When I found I couldn't create a new document in the Documents folder, this proved it didn't have anything to do with how data was copied.

 

[USAFRet]

Then it relates to the permissions on that folder, not the items inside it.

 

[trippb]

@USAFRet, I wanted to say the same thing but when I put the permission and ownership windows for Desktop and Documents side by side and they are identical, I have to start looking elsewhere. I had copies of the same file on the Desktop and Documents. I put the permissions windows for the files side by side and they were the same.

I'm starting to wonder if this is an Office update issue. Both computers had Windows and Office fully updated before copying data over.

 

[hang-the-9]

@USAFRet, I wanted to say the same thing but when I put the permission and ownership windows for Desktop and Documents side by side and they are identical, I have to start looking elsewhere. I had copies of the same file on the Desktop and Documents. I put the permissions windows for the files side by side and they were the same.

I'm starting to wonder if this is an Office update issue. Both computers had Windows and Office fully updated before copying data over.

Users on one computer is not the same as users on another, even with the same name, the security ID of the accounts are different, so to Windows, the accounts are different even if they have the same names. If you create an account called BOB on your computer, then delete it, and create a new account called BOB on the same computer, BOB won't be able to access old BOB's files. Take full ownership of the folder on the drive from the computer with the issue, include in the options all items bellow the folder, you could also add Everyone to the permissions for the folders, I'd check from the root of the drive and assign permissions from there, make sure the option is to apply to all subfolders. You may also want to run a check disk on the drive. I've seen similar issues happen with bad sectors.

 

[trippb]

A thrid computer just came into our shop with a similar problem involving Adobe Reader.

We started looking at what was the same between all three computers. Any computer that comes into our shop with a current and active antivirus subscription, gets Panda's Cloud free antivirus product installed on it. They have a new component called Data Shied. That is the problem. Disabling this feature fixes the issue. We will be uninstalling Panda and finding another free solution for our customers.

 

[trippb]

@USAFRet, I wanted to say the same thing but when I put the permission and ownership windows for Desktop and Documents side by side and they are identical, I have to start looking elsewhere. I had copies of the same file on the Desktop and Documents. I put the permissions windows for the files side by side and they were the same.

I'm starting to wonder if this is an Office update issue. Both computers had Windows and Office fully updated before copying data over.

I've got the problem solved now but I still wanted to reply to this post. Copying the files to a FAT or EXT4 partition strips the NTFS permissions and ownership info. When they were copied back to the NTFS partition, they inherited the permissions and ownership of the folders they were copied into. When I'm doing a large data transfer, it can be a pain to wait for NTFS to take ownership and change permissions. It is oftentimes much quicker to copy to an intermediate device formatted at FAT or EXT4 and then moving it to the final location on NTFS.

Users on one computer is not the same as users on another, even with the same name, the security ID of the accounts are different, so to Windows, the accounts are different even if they have the same names. If you create an account called BOB on your computer, then delete it, and create a new account called BOB on the same computer, BOB won't be able to access old BOB's files. Take full ownership of the folder on the drive from the computer with the issue, include in the options all items bellow the folder, you could also add Everyone to the permissions for the folders, I'd check from the root of the drive and assign permissions from there, make sure the option is to apply to all subfolders. You may also want to run a check disk on the drive. I've seen similar issues happen with bad sectors.

 

[Guest]

Thanks!