Microsoft Office 2000 standard edition. Dissapeared on me. Help please

[AlanB]

When i try to get into an Excell or word file from my desktop shortcut it keeps coming up with the message
"The feature you are trying to use is on a network that is unavailable"
Then it tells me to try again or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the install package "data1.msi"
Then it comes up error 1706 no valid source could be found for product microsoft office 2000 sr-1 standard.

If i go into add/remove programes and look for the microsoft office 2000 it has a flag in the left column,
If i try to repair, or reinstall it goes about half way through the process then comes up with the same message as above.

Can anyone tell me what has happened, and how can i fix this.  I do not have the original mic office disks as we have moved house and i have no idea where they have gone. (my kids i think  lending to friends).

All my home accounts and personal contacts etc are on my excell files.  I do have backups on two seperate usb storage drives, but can't use them as they try to open office 2000 in order to read them.

Hoping someone can tell me what has happened to creat the above problems, and can i fix it without going out and buying another mic office 2000 disk.

Many thanks for any replies that will "hopefully" come,

Regards
Alan from New Zealand

[Aegis]

On what drive was Office installed?

Have you tried the Search feature to see if you can find any Office files?

In the meantime, try Open Office at www.openoffice.org

You can download it for free, and use it to read and edit your Excel files.

[AlanB]

Thank you for that reply, i will try your suggestion,

Office was loaded to the c drive and still appears to be there as with my files. I just cant get into anything due to the strange commands that come up as above.

[Aegis]

The version of Office installed on the system appears to have become corrupted.

(I'm such a genius!)    

I've not seen those responses, before.

[alan1000]

Hi Kiwi Alan,

You're getting a message which says "a valid source for Office 2000 SR1 cannot be found."   This suggests that the registry entries relating to Office 2000 are intact, but there is a problem with the executable file and/or an essential DLL file.  DLL files are easy to replace, but the executable is another matter.

Have you tried opening Windows Explorer  and double-clicking c:\program files\microsoft office\office\excel.exe?  If that works (and I'd be surprised if it does) then it means your shortcut is corrupted, and that's very easy to fix.  Always eliminate the simplest options first.

If that doesn't work, then Aegis is dead right, and your Office installation is corrupted.  And if you don't have the disc, that could be your blooming lot, mate.  So then OpenOffice is your best solution.

If you have the time and patience, you could check whether it's just a missing or corrupted DLL file.  Download Microsoft Dependency Walker (free download) from http://www.dependencywalker.com and identify the essential DLL files for Excel.exe.  There are only nine or ten.  Make a note of any which are missing from your Office folder and/or your Windows System32 folder.  Go to a site such as WWW.DLLDLL.COM and download new ones.  Replace the missing one(s), and see if that fixes the problem.

If none were missing, that's where the patience comes in.  Try replacing the existing DLL files one by one and see whether that (eventually) fixes the problem.

If it doesn't then you would have to suspect that Excel.exe itself is corrupted.  And that's game shot, as they say.   Because without the CD there's no way you can replace that legally (unless you buy another copy on eBay).

Aussie Alan