xp can't find files in word-for-dos format

**hotpotato71** · October 16th, 2004, 02:00 AM

yup, win95 to win2000 can detect doc files in word-for-dos format (including win2000 in ntfs). can't understand why xp can't. already tried google desktop search, no luck either. by deduction, would it be correct to say that the problem is with xp? [img]images/smilies/borgsmile.gif[/img]

**NooNoo** · October 16th, 2004, 05:07 AM

Interesting set of posts this.

To clarify, the files are saved as .doc but are actually in rtf or txt format? Word for dos format means nothing to me (I was a word perfect user in those days).

XP discriminating files like that is odd. Have you tried booting to safe mode and trying?
How about safe mode command prompt?

**confus-ed** · October 16th, 2004, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by hotpotato71

.. unfortunately, my files were saved as .doc, in word-for-dos, and not .rtf. ...

Have you tried renaming them '.somethingelse' instead of .doc, I'm wondering if file associations is somehow cocking this up ?

& what happens if you open console & do a search that way for (move to the directory where they are first) *.doc ?

**hotpotato71** · October 16th, 2004, 07:30 PM

no, noonoo. the files were saved as .doc and not as rtf. xp can find files in other formats, except (it seems) word for dos. i tried your suggestion to do the search in safe mode. still no luck. but i do appreciate your suggestion.

thanks also, confus-ed. but renaming them won't really solve the problem, since i've started saving my future files in word95 format, which xp can find. as for the 10 years of files, i made copies of them in another folder in txt format (same name but extension is txt instead of doc), so xp can find them when i do a search. when i find the files i need, that's the time i open the word-for-dos files. at least that's the best i can do for now.

**hudsonsmith** · October 17th, 2004, 08:45 AM

I have word for dos documents and xp. What part of the search doesn't work for you? If I search for word documents or for the file name, the word for dos files are included in the results. What doesn't work is searching the document contents. I think this is because ms views the word for dos converter as a security risk (when I open a word for dos document, it gives me a security warning before it will open it).

**hotpotato71** · October 17th, 2004, 07:17 PM

yup, that's the case. if i type the filename of a word-for-dos file, it shows up on windows search. but if i type the contents of the file, it doesn't. but my case is different in that it doesn't even show any dialog box explaining why this is so. neither does it display a security warning if i open a word-for-dos file. but thanks for your post. at least partially it explains why windows search can't locate word-for-dos files from the contents field.