Word 2000 /2003

[remik500]

Hi all and thanks for the continued support I receive here, I do write
it all up in my little moral notebook with the hope that one day I
would also have the knowledge and the energy to assist others in this
way.

We have twice in the last two weeks ran into the following issue in
two different and unrelated documents.

While editing a large Word 2000 or 2003 document (file size is only
10-20 megabytes but it has many tables and images)
it suddenly won't save anymore and starts complaining about
insufficient disk space, even though there is plenty (20 gigs).

"The disk is full. Free some space on this drive, or save the document
on another drive"

I have tried most of the prevention tips suggested in:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...+2003+disk+space+save&rnum=1#2ee656970064dd59

Fast save and background save have been turned off already so that is
not the trouble.
"Automatically save version on close" was also off, as was version
tracking.
"Embed truteype fonts" was turned off, but
"Embed linguistic data" was on, and it won't allow me to turn it off-
the next time I start word it is back on again.

What I can see is that in the document directory there is rather a lot
of temporary word files for some reason (perhaps thats normal, I don't
remember having that many though), and they all have the same size as
the .doc file. They of course can't be deleted (as per microsoft's
advice on this issue on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224059/en-us
), as long as the document is open, and I can't close it until I can
save it. Bit of chicken and the egg problem.

I have managed to open the document in Word 2000 read only, and then
do a save as to a different file, and start to work on it instead, but
how do we prevent this from re-occuring?

I have automatic cleaning of all temporary files with ccleaner every
boot and the swap file has a permanent size 2GB (512MB RDRAM). The
hard drive is a new 160GB and so is the Win2k installation (a few
months old, Pentium 4 1.7GHZ). The Drive is partitioned to 30/120 or
so with C and D where Windows sits on C.

I have increased the swap file size to 4 gigs perhaps that was the
problem. Using NTFS on Win2000 SP4. Office/Windows have all the
updates. The problem does not seem to occur on other computes with
nearly identical configuration (Win2k 512MB etc) but they have FAT32.
It might be related to a a few peculiarities in the past few months
after trying on NTFS (the troublesome PC used to have FAT32 but then I
formatted it as NTFS) - for example whenever trying to double click on
an .exe file on the NTFS machine from the network (i.e. from one of
the FAT32 machines) the FAT32 machine promptly hangs and has to be
turned off physically. It doesn't matter which .exe file (even the
simplest ones with no related DLL's such as single file setup
sharewares installs). The same EXE file works without problems when
double clicked from any FAT32 machine.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word does create quite a few temp files while you're working (one for each
time you save), and it is this buildup that is probably causing the problem.
Once you get the issue straightened out, I would advise closing and
reopening the document periodically while working. This will flush the temp
files and give you a fresh start. This process also clears the Undo stack,
which can often be the source of the problem; there are other ways to clear
the Undo stack if that's the only issue: switching form protection on and
off will do it, or it can be done with a specific macro.

I can't comment on the rest of your post, as I'm deeply ignorant about such
issues.

 

[Terry Farrell]

As Suzanne has suggested, the number of temp files could be the problem; so
make sure that the temp folder is totally empty when all applications are
closed (it is best to check this straight after a fresh reboot and before
anything is opened).

I'd also reduce the swap file to 1.5 GB as the recommendation is three times
the physical installed memory and if you really get into a situation where
the system needs more than 1.5 GB, there is going to be a serious slow down!

Overall, if it was my computer, I think that I would add another 512MB
Memory and reinstall the PC from a freshly reformatted (NTFS) drive as it
sounds as though there me be some underlying problem.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

This MSKB article might be of interest . It deals with file size limits.
I do not think the present document exceeds any of the limits, it might
be of interest in the future.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211489

I suggest that you delete all temporary files, delete files in the
Internet browser cache, dun scandisk on all drives and fix any errors.
Then run defragment on all drives.

My suggestion about paging files and virtual memory is different than you
usually see as suggestions for improvements. I would strongly advise
settings to allow Windows to manage those matters. If you notice a lot of
seeming useless disk activity frequently, try setting the minimum size
only; do not set the maximum size.

I find myself wondering about the need to delete temporary files on
startup. If, indeed, that is a necessity rather than a choice out of some
sense of precaution, it indicated a system problem that needs addressing.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows Shell/User

 

[remik500]

Fascinating, its the first time I see this sort of opinion regarding
the swap file. Small correction to myself,
I do not delete the tempfiles every boot but every week (scheduled
task).

I would like very much to upgrade the RAM (after a typical working
day, if I go to task manager, Performance, Commit Charge - the 'Peak'
is sometimes 3 times my physical RAM!) but RDRAM is so terribly
expensive, 1GB is about one third of the cost of a new PC with Core 2
duo and 2 Gigs RAM and all that, and our PC is so intricately
configured that I get numb just thinking about reinstalling
everything. I saw some cheap RDRAMs floating around on Ebay and in
second hand places but I'm wary of getting second hand memory, what if
it starts crashing after a few weeks, can I trust the RAM diagnostic
burn in test freewares to test its condition?

I don't think the configuration itself is the problem, as it was the
same when we had FAT32 for years on this machine and then we never had
these problems. Perhaps its not meek to says so but I'm suspicious of
the suitability of NTFS/Win2k to a mixed FAT32/NTFS home workgroup
setup and regret trying it, especially as I don't use many of its
added benefits.

I shall certainly try letting windows manage the swap file, though it
sounds scary. (Never did it, since windows 3.1!)

 

[Terry Farrell]

I see your problem: RDRAM was never popular and now it obsolete, it is very
expensive new. However, there are many software memory testers that you can
download: most work very well. Also, providing you ensure that you get the
correct type, buying used memory from eBay is a good way to stretch more
life out of your computer.

As for Windows managing the Swapfile: I don't see this as a problem, but I
would still suggest you keep a minimum setting set to the same size as the
installed memory and let Windows take care of the maximum size. The reason
for this is that Windows does take a small amount of time to create a
Swapfile, so if it already has a small amount assigned, it can save time.
But, keeping a large Swapfile set permanently will ensure that Windows is
using a contiguous area on the disk avoiding fragmentation of the swapfile.

Terry