There Is Not Enough Free Space on... (106228)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q106228
This information applies to both Microsoft DoubleSpace and Microsoft DriveSpace. For MS-DOS 6.22, use DRVSPACE in place of DBLSPACE for commands and filenames.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to resize a DoubleSpace-compressed drive, you may receive one of the following messages (when drive C is compressed):
DoubleSpace cannot change the size of drive C.
There is not enough free space on drive C to complete this operation. Delete some unnecessary files from drive C and try again.

-or-

DoubleSpace cannot change the size of drive <H>.
There is not enough free space on your original startup drive, which is now drive <H>. DoubleSpace will need at least <0.XX> MB of free space on that drive. Delete some files from that drive, and try this operation again.
where <H> is your host drive and <0.XX> is the free minimum space needed on your host drive.

CAUSE

The first error message is incorrect and can occur if you specify too little free space to be left available on the host drive. For example, if your drive C is compressed and you type dblspace /size /reserve=0.00 c: at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER, you receive this error.

Although the second error message is accurate, you may not be able to delete enough files from the host drive to allow the resize process to succeed.

RESOLUTION

The minimum free space you can leave on the host drive (for a boot drive) varies depending on the size of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files; however, a general rule is approximately 0.4 megabytes. If drive C is compressed and you want to leave the minimum space free on the host drive, type dblspace /size /reserve=0.4 c: at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER.

If you receive the second error message noted above, DoubleSpace cannot resize your drive due to the large size of your AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, or DBLSPACE.INF file. Use the following procedure to resize your DoubleSpace-compressed drive:

  1. Rename CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.PSS. For example, type ren c:\config.sys config.pss at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER.

    WARNING: If your CONFIG.SYS file contains references to device drivers that are needed to access your hard disk drive, do not rename your CONFIG.SYS file.
  2. Rename AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOEXEC.PSS.
  3. Reboot your computer and then resize your DoubleSpace-compressed drive.
  4. If you still cannot resize your DoubleSpace-compressed drive:

    1. Copy your DBLSPACE.INF file to DBLSPACE.PSS.
    2. Edit your DBLSPACE.INF file and remove any comments or other lines you don't need.
    3. Reboot your computer and then resize your DoubleSpace-compressed drive.
    4. Copy DBLSPACE.PSS over the DBLSPACE.INF you modified. For example, type copy c:\dos\dblspace.pss c:\dos\dblspace.inf at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER.
  5. Rename CONFIG.PSS to CONFIG.SYS.
  6. Rename AUTOEXEC.PSS to AUTOEXEC.BAT
  7. Reboot your computer so that the original AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files are processed.
To avoid this problem in the future, leave more free space on your host drive. For example, to reserve one megabyte of free space, type dblspace /size /reserve=1 c: at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER.

MORE INFORMATION

DoubleSpace copies the following files to the host drive so that it can continue resizing the drive if the power fails during the resize process: 
   AUTOEXEC.000              ; copy of C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
   CONFIG.000                ; copy of C:\CONFIG.SYS
   DBLSPACE.EXE              ; copied from C:\DOS
   DBLSPACE.HLP              ; copied from C:\DOS
   DBLSPACE.INF              ; copied from C:\DOS
   DBLSPACE.WIN              ; file to keep track of Windows
   DEFRAG.EXE                ; copied from C:\DOS
If your AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, and/or DBLSPACE.INF files have grown significantly since you resized your DoubleSpace-compressed drive to its minimum size, you may not be able to resize the drive. If your DBLSPACE.INF file has not changed, you need 339,646 bytes free on your host drive, plus the size of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.

NOTE: Using the DoubleSpace command-line switches, you can set the minimum free space to be left on the host drive to .13 megabytes less than you can using the user interface of the DoubleSpace maintenance program.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/21/2002
Keywords:kbprb KB106228
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.