Disk Full Error in Word 2004

[Matthew Burk]

Hello-
I have been getting the disk full error where my file can't save. I had
never actually had this problem in older versions of Word but I am in Word
2004, where I thought it had been fixed. The file was created in Word 2003
on XP and contains several linked figures, Excel spreadsheets and Endnote
references, so it would be difficult to remove all of these things and
reinsert. The files works just fine on my windows machine. Does anyone have
any info or fixes for the error with 2004?

Word 2004
OS X 10.3.5
Over 60 gig free drive space.

Thanks, Matt

 

[Fredrik Wahlgren]

Hello-
I have been getting the disk full error where my file can't save. I had
never actually had this problem in older versions of Word but I am in Word
2004, where I thought it had been fixed. The file was created in Word 2003
on XP and contains several linked figures, Excel spreadsheets and Endnote
references, so it would be difficult to remove all of these things and
reinsert. The files works just fine on my windows machine. Does anyone have
any info or fixes for the error with 2004?

Word 2004
OS X 10.3.5
Over 60 gig free drive space.

Thanks, Matt

I think this document may help:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/word/disk_full.html

/ Fredrik

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I think this document may help:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/word/disk_full.html

/ Fredrik

There is more complete information here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskFullError.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

 

[Matthew Burk]

Hello-

There is more complete information here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskFullError.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Thank you both for the links. Unfortunately neither seem to apply to the
specific file I have. If I open Word, open the file, and make one change
(add a single space or something) and then try to save manually I also get
the error. There seems to be something corrupt or wrong with the
document...although it works perfectly fine in all ways on my Windows XP
machines. I guess no editing of the file on my Mac...

Thanks, Matt

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thank you both for the links. Unfortunately neither seem to apply to the
specific file I have. If I open Word, open the file, and make one change
(add a single space or something) and then try to save manually I also get
the error. There seems to be something corrupt or wrong with the
document...although it works perfectly fine in all ways on my Windows XP
machines. I guess no editing of the file on my Mac...

So what's the exact text of the error? That behavior does not sound like the
disk full bug.

Try the corrupt doc techniques:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm
(hit reload a few times in Safari, if that doesn't work, try Explorer)

WinWord:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

 

[Fredrik Wahlgren]

Thank you both for the links. Unfortunately neither seem to apply to the
specific file I have. If I open Word, open the file, and make one change
(add a single space or something) and then try to save manually I also get
the error. There seems to be something corrupt or wrong with the
document...although it works perfectly fine in all ways on my Windows XP
machines. I guess no editing of the file on my Mac...

Thanks, Matt

Have you tried "Save As"? Try to save the file under a different name or on
a different location.

/ Fredrik

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Matt,

Try uncorrupting the document: See here for the two most effective methods
for Word 2004: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm>

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Thomas Fischer]

Hi Matthew,

there is a bug in Word that may create this (or a similar) effect when you
are using different dictionaries simultaneously. Do you have automatic
hyphenation on? And if so, can you save the document after you switched it
off?

Greetings from Austria
Thomas

 

[Matthew Burk]

Thomas-
Hyphenation was not on. Unfortunately the document was fairly complex and
obviously corrupt in some way that only seemed to bother Word on the Mac. I
spent an hour recreating the doc (in Windows), reinserting figures etc. and
I could then save it. It's too bad this was the only way to get a doc that
worked perfectly in windows to save and be edited on my Mac...Oh well.
Thanks for the help. Matt

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Did you try the fixes for corrupt documents that Beth and I suggested,
before recreating the doc? It would be helpful to know if none of them
worked.

It would also be helpful to know the exact text of the error you were
getting.

Thanks,

 

[Matthew Burk]

Did you try the fixes for corrupt documents that Beth and I suggested,
before recreating the doc? It would be helpful to know if none of them
worked.

It would also be helpful to know the exact text of the error you were
getting.

Thanks,

Yes I did, sorry I didn't mention. Copy and pasting minus last paragraph
mark didn't work and save as HTML may have, but I gave up after 45 minutes
of my computer grinding away as I needed to get other work done (1.33 GHz,
768 MB ram). It was a 65 page document with 12 inserted figures (from
SigmaPlot as .wmf), 2 links to Excel tables, and EndNote used for
references.

The specific error was:

The disk is full trying to write to "Macintosh HD". Free some space on this
drive, or save the document on another disk. Try one or more of the
following: Close any unneeded documents, programs, and widows. Save document
on another disk.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks very much, all of that information is helpful in knowing what may or
may not work, especially the details on the complexity of the document.

DM

Yes I did, sorry I didn't mention. Copy and pasting minus last paragraph
mark didn't work and save as HTML may have, but I gave up after 45 minutes
of my computer grinding away as I needed to get other work done (1.33 GHz,
768 MB ram). It was a 65 page document with 12 inserted figures (from
SigmaPlot as .wmf), 2 links to Excel tables, and EndNote used for
references.

The specific error was:

The disk is full trying to write to "Macintosh HD". Free some space on this
drive, or save the document on another disk. Try one or more of the
following: Close any unneeded documents, programs, and widows. Save document
on another disk.

Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Matt,

I've just reviewed this whole thread and I'm going to take a guess at what
happened based on your post below. It's only a guess but ...

Since recreating the doc in Windows made saving it on the Mac finally work,
my theory is that some component of the original document contained
corruption that the Mac couldn't handle. Using the procedures to uncorrupt
the whole document will not necessarily uncorrupt a particular element in
the document (this happens frequently with tables, figures and section
breaks). Why MacWord was more sensitive to the corrupt element than
WinWord, I don't know; but apparently, recreating the document got rid of
the corrupt element.

If you continue to work with this document on the Mac and start to get the
same error message, however, please try the uncorrupt document procedures
again and, if they don't work, post back here. I could be wrong and there
could be an entirely different mechanism at work.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[cp]

Thank you both for the links. Unfortunately neither seem to apply to the
specific file I have. If I open Word, open the file, and make one change
(add a single space or something) and then try to save manually I also get
the error. There seems to be something corrupt or wrong with the
document...although it works perfectly fine in all ways on my Windows XP
machines. I guess no editing of the file on my Mac...

When say that it works on all of your Windows XP machines, is this
being saved to a server? If so, what platform?

I've noticed that Word 2004 is not playing nice with our Netware
server. (see my post in OS X and saving word files to server
291020040919286868%[email protected] )

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Matthew:

That sounds to me like the EndNote fields went bad. However, the conversion
from/to WMF can also be troublesome.

"Disk Full" is really a generic error that means "Unable to save file",
which is what happens if EndNote corrupts its fields, or if your WMFs won't
cleanly convert to/from PICT.

My bet is the EndNote fields. In EndNote, you have to fire a "Transport to
New Version" command then save the document before sending it to a different
version of Word. When you do, EndNote reconstructs its fields so they can
be transported. If you omit this step, EndNote can find a corrupt document
when you open on a new version of Word.

That may have been what happened.

If Save as Web Page (save to XML) is going to work, it will do so in about
twice the normal document save time: so after 45 minutes, your decision was
correct: the job was never going to complete. A 1,000-page document will
save to XML and re-open (from a local disk) in about 30 seconds.

Hope this helps

Yes I did, sorry I didn't mention. Copy and pasting minus last paragraph
mark didn't work and save as HTML may have, but I gave up after 45 minutes
of my computer grinding away as I needed to get other work done (1.33 GHz,
768 MB ram). It was a 65 page document with 12 inserted figures (from
SigmaPlot as .wmf), 2 links to Excel tables, and EndNote used for
references.

The specific error was:

The disk is full trying to write to "Macintosh HD". Free some space on this
drive, or save the document on another disk. Try one or more of the
following: Close any unneeded documents, programs, and widows. Save document
on another disk.

Thanks for the suggestions.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410