Excel 2000 - Excel file is locked for editing by ' '.

When trying to open one of my Excel files, it was locked. To solve this problem Microsoft's suggestion is to save the file in another name. I did this and it works fine.
Now to the problem: I want to rename the file back to the original name. To do this I obviously have to get rid of the original file. Windows will not let me delete the file. It says:

"Error deleting File
Cannot delete <FILENAME>:Access is denied.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use. "

None of the above is true, so I am at the end of my wisdom.
Can anyone shed some light on this and advise?

 

Try rebooting and then delete the file, make sure your Excel program is NOT running. If that doesn't work try deleting it from Safe Mode. If it won't delete from Safe Mode either, boot to a DOS prompt (hold control key down before "Verifying DMI Pool" notice comes up and select boot to DOS from boot list.

The directory and file name may be truncated in dos mode. So make sure you know what directory it is in. May look something like:

C:\MyDocum~1\Excel~1\myfile~1.xls

 

Thanks John,
you are a genius. I am a happy man.
Cheers Axel

 

Hi Axel, you're welcome, pleased to hear it worked. What method did you use in the end?