>after copying a database file and all the tables that are contained in the database from a network share to a local drive we found that some of the tables on the network drive were no longer part of the database and some fields in some tables were blanked out.
>
>..... I would have expected to get a message like "file access denied" or something.

When my files are open shared I don't get "File access denied." I just verified that if the file is in use exclusively I got an error message.

I'm on a Novell network. I don't know if that has any effect.

Also, is it possible that your network connection was bad at the time you copied the files?