Problems opening Office Files
I operate a small office network with a desktop and laptop both running Vista
Business. The network includes a DNS-323 NAS drive connected via a Netgear
DGFV338 router. The NAs is configured in RAID1 format with two identical
Seagate hard drives.
The network was set up in September 2007 and ran fine until mid December
2009 when I began to have problems accessing files on the NAS drive. When
trying to open a Word, Excel or saved email file I get the "File In Use"
message saying the files is locked for editing by "another user" even though
it is not open elsewhere.
Saving a newly created file to the NAS drive is fine but if I then edit it
and try to save the changes I get a similar message just saying that the file
is currenlty in use. Try again later.
It is slightly different when I try to open an email that I have saved in
Outlook Message Format – Unicode which is: "cannot open file - may not exist
- may not have permission - or may be open in another program" The
propoerties show I do have permission and it is not open elsewhere.
The same problems also arise when trying to access a shared folder on the
desktop pc on the network.
I don’t have problems opening jpg or pdf files it only seems to be Office
file formats that are affected.
First, this is not so much an answer to your issue but a few things I'd be curious about if I were having the problem you describe. Maybe, if you haven't already gone down this road, you may discover the answer by considering these things...
I'm not a Raid geek so don't laugh, but can you turn off one of the drives in the Raid and see if the problems persist? Maybe the way the Raid is functioning is an issue...not releasing files properly after writing/saving across drives.
I'd check permissions on the complete file/folder heirarchy from a file you cannot access (or save) all the way up.
Does the NAS have utilities that you can check settings with...looking for file access or security-type settings? Maybe the NAS has BIOS or utility updates that address such issue.
Could any OS or Office updates have changed your system in a way that now the NAS has trouble dealing with Office files? Check your Windows Update history for what occurred in mid December...maybe a clue there.
If I could access a .jpg file, I'd try moving it into a folder containing MS files that I was having access problems with and see if I could still open the file. Basically, taking something that works into an area that doesn't to see what happens.
This is probably way out there but I also use a NAS and have a D-Link router in which I had to at one point assign static IP addresses to my PC's. I don't recall the specifics, but at one time having the router assign dynamic IP's was an issue with some network access. It went away when I assigned static IP's to my network PC's and devices. I also have been tripped up by my use of MAC filtering in my router. Any possible issue there?
Last thing...when I've had Outlook open and been using Word on one PC to access docs on the NAS, then closed out Word but left Outlook open and then from another PC tried to access one of the formerly open Word docs from another PC, I been told the file is in use. Once I closed out of Outlook on the 1st PC (which uses Word as email editor) I was able to successfully access the Word docs from the 2nd PC. I believe Outlook's Word email editor was not releasing all previously open docs completely while Outlook was still open.
I admit that these ideas may not even be close...or you may have already eliminated them as possibilities...but thought I'd toss them out there as possible inspiration.
Good luck.