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Summary: CD's are great for backup and storage. However CD-R's are not so good for files that you need to directly access from certain programs. I made a CD of my address book & when I tried open it I got the following message. "The address book has been locked by another application. Please close the other application & try again later" I Googled the problem & I did as Microsoft suggested & made sure the "Read only" box was unchecked In all address book files. It was. Still no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The problem, I suspect, is that there are two types of read-only. And a program that requires that files NOT be read-only wants it both ways. • There are two ways that a file can show up as being "read-only":
"...even after copying the files from CD
to your hard disk, the files will still be marked as read-only.
What typically happens is that a program that tries to use the file will attempt to open the file and ask for the ability to write to it. If the file is read-only, for either of the above reasons, that open will fail. The confusing part is that this attempt to open can fail in ways that are very similar to the failure that happens if another program has the file open. The net result is the slightly confusing error message you receive. So, what to do? Since the CD will always be read-only no mater what you do, you need to copy the file or files to your hard disk and open them from there. But, naturally, there's a catch. When files are copied the program you use to copy them sees that the files are read-only. Unless you tell it otherwise it "copies" the read-only attribute with the files. That means that even after copying the files from CD to your hard disk the files will still be marked as read-only. But this time, on your hard disk, it'll simply be the read-only attribute on the file that has been set. Right click on the file, click on Properties, uncheck the "read-only" attribute, and hit OK. You'll need to do that for each file you copied and/or need write access to. Related:
Article 11149 | Posted February 5, 2007 |
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Errr Leo, it's certainly not necessary to "do that for each file you copied and/or need write access to" (i.e. to remove the "Real-only" attribute); one can simply select more files and/or folders and do that only once for all the files/folders together.
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best regards,
Posted by: Ivan Tadej at February 20, 2007 5:48 AMIvan Tadej, Slovenia
http://tadej-ivan.50webs.com/
The read only message will not allow me to copy files to my computer - THAT IS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!
Posted by: Ryan at March 21, 2007 12:15 AMDear Leo,
When I burn CDs (RWs) with data files (MS Word) for the first time, everything is fine and I can open the files and work with them. I save the disk to be read on (or be compatible with) all "CD-ROMS." However, when I try to access the files on the CD the following day, the CD is not recognized. The CDs work fine on other PCs.
I thought perhaps the CD-ROM wasn't working, but it works perfectly when I insert a CD that I have not burned, but purchased or one that has been burned by someone else.
Thanks for your help.
Lutz
Posted by: Lutz at June 25, 2007 10:18 AM