I did get the page numbers to open in a frame or object box, but not only was "remove page numbers" button not available, but the "Cut" command was also grayed-out.

I'm not seeing lots of backward-compatibility using 2010 to open something created in 2003, even after saving to .docx format to get out of "compatibility mode". Both machines are still running XP SP2, BTW....perhaps contributing to the problem, but both Word 2003 and 20010 were designed to run under XP.

A new WIN 10 machine is in my future shortly, along with Office 2016, just don't have the money to stay current, since I have the latest of everything at work and can't keep 3 home machines current.

I have never had problems with flash-drives corrupting anything, so don't really understand how the storage media can cause problems.