Strange error: not wnough space on 160GB drive...?

[Impmon]

I was trying to make some copies off of my internal 80GB hard drives
(50GB total in files files) to an external 160GB drive. The 160
refused to allow copy because there isn't "enough space" on it but
when I checked proerties, it shows 145GB free.

Last I checked, 145GB free is > than 50GB files needed to be copied.

I did a quick format of that 160 as there was no error found, disk
clean up only found 2k to be deleted, and I was out of ideas. After
the quick format, the drive finally worked.

Any idea what that happened in the first place?

 

[Peter]

I was trying to make some copies off of my internal 80GB hard drives

(50GB total in files files) to an external 160GB drive. The 160
refused to allow copy because there isn't "enough space" on it but
when I checked proerties, it shows 145GB free.

Last I checked, 145GB free is > than 50GB files needed to be copied.

I did a quick format of that 160 as there was no error found, disk
clean up only found 2k to be deleted, and I was out of ideas. After
the quick format, the drive finally worked.

Any idea what that happened in the first place?

Can you reproduce that error?

 

[Rod Speed]

I was trying to make some copies off of my internal 80GB hard
drives (50GB total in files files) to an external 160GB drive. The
160 refused to allow copy because there isn't "enough space"
on it but when I checked proerties, it shows 145GB free.

Last I checked, 145GB free is > than 50GB files needed to be copied.

I did a quick format of that 160 as there was no error found,
disk clean up only found 2k to be deleted, and I was out of
ideas. After the quick format, the drive finally worked.

Any idea what that happened in the first place?

If the 160G drive was formatted NTFS, most likely you
managed to screw the permissions, the account you were
trying to do the copy from didnt have ownership of the folder
that you were trying to write the files to.

 

[McSpreader]

If the 160G drive was formatted NTFS, most likely you
managed to screw the permissions, the account you were
trying to do the copy from didnt have ownership of the folder
that you were trying to write the files to.

Nope. You'd see Access Denied or similar in that circumstance.

 

[Rod Speed]

Nope. You'd see Access Denied or similar in that circumstance.

Yeah, more likely the account he did use didnt
have access to the free space that was visible.

 

[McSpreader]

Yeah, more likely the account he did use didnt
have access to the free space that was visible.

So how do you set up access permissions on free space?

I smell RSBS again...

 

[Rod Speed]

So how do you set up access permissions on free space?

Even you should be able to work that one out for yourself.

 

[McSpreader]

I was trying to make some copies off of my internal 80GB hard
drives (50GB total in files files) to an external 160GB drive.
The 160 refused to allow copy because there isn't "enough space"
on it but when I checked proerties, it shows 145GB free.

Last I checked, 145GB free is > than 50GB files needed to be
copied.

I did a quick format of that 160 as there was no error found,
disk clean up only found 2k to be deleted, and I was out of
ideas. After the quick format, the drive finally worked.

Any idea what that happened in the first place?

How is the external drive connected?

 

[McSpreader]

Even you should be able to work that one out for yourself.

Actually no, I can't. Please tell.

 

[Impmon]

How is the external drive connected?

Via USB 2.0 and to answer another post: I have not been able to
reproduce the error sicne I reformatted the drive. The message was
simply not enough space, not permission denied or anything else.

I've only had one user/account on my XP and I've had that hard drive
for almost a year. It was just odd it suddenly decided it didn't have
enough space even though it showed 145GB free.

 

[McSpreader]

Via USB 2.0 and to answer another post: I have not been able to
reproduce the error sicne I reformatted the drive. The message
was simply not enough space, not permission denied or anything
else.

I've only had one user/account on my XP and I've had that hard
drive for almost a year. It was just odd it suddenly decided it
didn't have enough space even though it showed 145GB free.

I suggest there was inconsistency in the directory and file
allocation data on the drive that gave rise to the anomalous
behaviour, and thus reformatting straightened that out.

My experience of early external USB2 drives indicates that there
were communication bugs that could cause interruption of transfer
when reading or corruption of the disk data when writing. These
were more evident in large data transfers, several GB at a time.

 

[Rod Speed]

Via USB 2.0 and to answer another post: I have not been able to
reproduce the error sicne I reformatted the drive. The message was
simply not enough space, not permission denied or anything else.

How did you try to do the copy, in explorer or what ?

What shows in the event log ?

I've only had one user/account on my XP
and I've had that hard drive for almost a year.

You didnt say how it was formatted, FAT32 or NTFS.

It was just odd it suddenly decided it didn't have
enough space even though it showed 145GB free.

Yeah, but it may have actually been saying that it cant
write rather than not enough free space depending on
what was used to try to write the files to it.

 

[Impmon]

How did you try to do the copy, in explorer or what ?

3 different ways: via Explorer to copy the entire folder containing
files from source to external drive. Then tried copying individual
files. Then tried the copy command in DOS. All were not enough
space.

What shows in the event log ?

Didn't check that.

You didnt say how it was formatted, FAT32 or NTFS.
NTFS.


Yeah, but it may have actually been saying that it cant
write rather than not enough free space depending on
what was used to try to write the files to it.

I'm pretty sure it said not enough space. I've had write issues
before, usually write delayed error but that time it was simply "not
enough space". It was probably caused by a corrupted directory map or
something.

 

[CWatters]

I was trying to make some copies off of my internal 80GB hard drives
(50GB total in files files) to an external 160GB drive. The 160
refused to allow copy because there isn't "enough space" on it but
when I checked proerties, it shows 145GB free.

Last I checked, 145GB free is > than 50GB files needed to be copied.

I did a quick format of that 160 as there was no error found, disk
clean up only found 2k to be deleted, and I was out of ideas. After
the quick format, the drive finally worked.

Any idea what that happened in the first place?

Was that 50G made up of very large files (eg backup images)? Perhaps it's
some kind of defeagmenting problem?

 

[Rod Speed]

3 different ways: via Explorer to copy the entire folder containing
files from source to external drive. Then tried copying individual
files. Then tried the copy command in DOS. All were not enough
space.


Didn't check that.



I'm pretty sure it said not enough space. I've had write issues
before, usually write delayed error but that time it was simply "not
enough space". It was probably caused by a corrupted directory map or
something.

Maybe. Doesnt explain why it could tell
you the space fine after the copy failed.

The entrys should still be in the event log.

 

[Rod Speed]

Was that 50G made up of very large files (eg backup images)?
Perhaps it's some kind of defeagmenting problem?

Shouldnt produce an error message whining about lack of free space.

 

[Peter]

How is the external drive connected?

Via USB 2.0 and to answer another post: I have not been able to
reproduce the error sicne I reformatted the drive. The message was
simply not enough space, not permission denied or anything else.

Then forget it.

 

[McSpreader]

Even you should be able to work that one out for yourself.

RSBS confirmed *yet again*.