Hi Larry:
You want me to "guess" which of the umpteen versions of operating system and
Word you are running? The answer is different for each...
Let's assume Word 2004.... If you don't have 2004 and OS 10.3, then see
Beth's article mentioned at the end.
I have no "suggestions" other than I can tell you that the error has nothing
to do with disk space. It's a generic error that simply means "The computer
returned a file system error when Word attempted to save the file."
The error is an unhappy set of circumstances with blame spread evenly among
all parties
Word should be coded to avoid it (I assure you, they're
trying...). Apple shouldn't do it. Your disk shouldn't cause it to do it.
The error "might" not happen if your disk permissions were different.
The real cause of the error is usually that there are too many files open
and the operating system will not allow Word to open another one. It needs
to do this in order to perform a Save (you can't write to a file you are
trying to read, you have to write a new file then switch to reading that:
that's how Word saves).
Before you do anything else, I suggest that you do the following:
* Shut down your computer (all the way to power-off, we need a full reboot)
and restart it. This causes OS X to clean up its temporary file storage.
This may cure the problem for a while. For an explanation, see here:
http://www.macfixit.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20031110093132207
Apple recently released the 10.3.7 update which among many other things
fixes some file system operations. I have installed it, and I don't get the
error. But then, I never "have" had the error.
I also run Word with "always make backup" set ON in the Save preferences
(which causes Word to generate fewer temporary files). And I have an old PC
user's habit of quitting applications (as opposed to minimising them) when I
am not using them. This technique "should" no longer be necessary (in
either Windows or Mac) but if you do it, it forces the application to
release any temporary files it has opened, allowing the OS to automatically
clean them up.
Then again, rebooting "should" not be necessary in either OS. In practice,
each of these OSs completes some important house-keeping when it starts up.
It can help a lot to reboot once a month or so.
If all else fails, Beth has a useful article here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskFullErrorContent.htm
that contains a downloadable tool that "may" help.
The article was written around Word 2001/X, but the utility offered will
work in Word 2004 also. Whether it "helps" is another matter: it isn't
supposed to, because it deals with a different problem that triggers the
same error message. But often in these situations, simply stirring things
up in the computer will often enable you to get lucky!
Hope this helps
Now and then, I get the following message in word 2004:
"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 of the
following:
* Close any unneeded documents, programs, windows.
* Save the documents on another disk.
Strange, I have got 40 GB free on my HD.
Any suggestions, the problem seems to become 'regular' !
--
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
