Knowledge Base

PRJ98: Cannot Find File or Link Error Message Opening Project

Article ID: 181646

Article Last Modified on 1/22/2007

Microsoft Project 98 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q181646

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Project 98, when you open a Project you may receive one of the following error messages:

Microsoft Project cannot find "<file name>", or the file format is not recognized.

Check that the file is in a format supported by Microsoft Project and that the name and path are correct.

-or-

Microsoft Project cannot connect to link "<ODBC Driver>"\<file name>!LINK_<link number>".

-or-

Cannot find inserted project - <{ODBC Driver}>\<file name>

NOTE: <ODBC Driver> is the driver used to save to an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) database. For example, if the Project was saved to an Access database, you would see: <Microsoft Access Driver (*mdb}>

<File name> is the name of a project that is the source of the link.

<Link number> is the number of the link referenced.

CAUSE

These error messages occur when you open a Project that contains any of the following types of links:

Resource sharing from another project.
OLE paste links from another project.
An inserted project.
-and-
The project that is the source of the links was saved to a database using an ODBC File Data Source.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, create and use a Machine DSN when saving to a database. For more information about creating a Machine DSN, click Contents And Index on the Help menu, click the Index tab in Microsoft Project Help, type the following text

ODBC database

double-click the selected text, and then double-click the Export project data to an ODBC database topic. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the versions of Microsoft Project listed above.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Project does not support the use of File DSNs that reference another project. File DSNs do not provide Microsoft Project with the necessary information to locate and retrieve a project. Therefore, do not use File DSNs when you use features that need to reference other projects, such as project consolidation, cross-project linking, resource sharing links, and OLE links.

For more information about File DSN and Machine DSN please refer to the Database.wri file located in the default Microsoft Project folder:

\\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office.

Note that the folder name will be different if you did not select the default location during Setup.

Keywords: kbbug kberrmsg kbpending KB181646