Microsoft KB Archive/102707

{| = Excel Err Msg: "Serious Disk Error" Opening Multiple Files =
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Last reviewed: September 12, 1996

Article ID: Q102707 The information in this article applies to:
 * Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.0a

SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Excel, when you use SMARTDRV.EXE to open multiple files at one time from a cached floppy disk drive, if the floppy disk is a write-protected disk, you may receive the following error message:

Serious Disk Error. A serious disk error has occurred while writing to drive A. Continue will retry the operation. When you receive this error, you must restart your computer or undo the write protection on the disk. WARNING: File corruption may result if the disk is NOT a write-protected disk.

WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, do the following to turn off caching to the floppy drive:

  Exit Windows and type the following command at the MS-DOS prompt: smartdrv.exe a- b- -or-   Modify the SMARTDRV.EXE line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT command line to turn off caching of any type for all floppy drives, as follows: c:\windows\smartdrv.exe 2048 1024 a- b- 

MORE INFORMATION
Smartdrv is a memory caching utility that decreases the time needed to read data from disk to memory. Applications can access data faster from memory than reading the same data from the disk. However, when system resources are in demand, Smartdrv will attempt to temporarily store information to the disk and read it again when resources become available.
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