Failed: There is not enough space on the disk

[jw113]

I've been using Eraser since at least 5.80, and never had a problem -- until now. I'm using 5.86a under Vista SP1 RC1, and I'm trying to erase a nearly 4gb file (4,294,966,784 bytes) from an external 40gb USB HD formatted as FAT32. When Eraser gets to the 99% point it stops and reports

Information:
  Statistics:
    Erased area         =  4092 MB
    Cluster tips         =  0 bytes

    Data written         =  4092 MB
    Write time         =  207.09 s
    Write speed         =  20232 kB/s

Failures:
  Failed: I:\MJ\TI1.tib (There is not enough space on the disk.)

In fact the disk has 24gb free, and chkdsk shows no problems with it. I'm wondering if Eraser is getting confused with a file that is so close to the 4gb FAT32 limit? Or???

Thanks.

[Joel]

Looking through other issues pointed me to the fix: Disable erasing of "Cluster tip area". Then the erase succeeds.

But why does leaving this option enabled cause a "disk full" error?

[Joel]

FAT32 chokes on files larger than 4GB. When you do a cluster tip erase you may exceed the 4G mark if the file already is 4GB long.

Ahwell, one of those quirks.

Joel

[Joel]

OK I can't really fix it. This is where definitions kinda fail and Garrett I'll need your intervention. To erase the cluster tip the file size is rounded up to the next cluster. Now what happens when adding this last cluster will cause the file to reach the file size limit of FAT32?

Joel

[eraser_user]

same problem in version 6.0.6.1376