PRJ41: "Disk Is Full" and "Unexpected Error" Saving File (137166)

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Project, when you save a file, you may receive the following error message:

Disk is full

followed by:

An unexpected error occurred while saving the file. The file could not be saved.

-or-

Disk is Full. Clear up some space on your disk, and then try again.

CAUSE

These error messages appear when you save a file if there is not enough disk space available on the disk to which you are saving the file. If you modify and save a file that has already been saved, and you save the file using the Save button on the Standard toolbar, the error messages may appear in the opposite order.

If you wait long enough before clicking OK in either of these dialog boxes, the following dialog box may appear:

You have run out of disk space on drive <drive>.

There is <filesize> MB worth of files in the Recycle Bin on this drive. Would you like to open the Recycle Bin or empty files in the Recycle Bin from this drive?

where <drive> is the drive that you are saving the file to, and <filesize> is the amount of disk space that is being used by files in the Recycle Bin on this hard disk.

Note that if you click OK without waiting in these dialog boxes, it may appear that there is no way that you can save the file.

WORKAROUND

To save the file even when you receive these error messages, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Empty the Recycle Bin.

If you receive the Windows Disk Space error message, you can click Empty to empty the Recycle Bin. If you do not receive this error message, do the following to empty the Recycle Bin:

Minimize Microsoft Project (do not close your file).
Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop.
On the File menu, click Empty Recycle Bin. Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the items.
Close the Recycle Bin.

Additionally, you can delete individual files in the Recycle Bin.

Method 2: Save the file to a different hard disk.

Save the file to a different hard disk on your computer or a network drive.

Method 3: Save the file to a floppy disk.

If the file is smaller than 1.44 MB, save the file to a floppy disk.

Method 4: Free up disk space.

Free up disk space on your hard disk by switching to My Computer or Windows Explorer and deleting any files that you don't need. Note that you should then run the Recycle Bin and delete these files if they are automatically moved here (see Method 1 above) to make sure they are not still being stored on your hard drive.

REFERENCES

For more information about emptying the Recycle Bin in Windows, click the Index tab in Windows Help, type the following text

Recycle Bin, emptying

and then double-click the selected text to go to the "To Empty The Recycle Bin" topic.