Cannot copy file. There is not enough free disk space. Delete one or more files to free disk space, and then try again

 

You get the following error which says "Cannot copy file. There is not enough free disk space. Delete one or more files to free disk space, and then try again.  To free up space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files, click Disk Cleanup."

Cannot copy file There is not enough free disk space Delete one or more files to free disk space, and then try again.  To free up space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files, click Disk Cleanup.

Here is a possible problem:

If the file is greater than 4 Gb in size, i.e. 4,000,000 Kb in size, and the target disk was formatted using the file format FAT32, you can't have any file that size on the target drive.  That's why it won't copy, but the idiots at Microsoft don't tell you that in the error message.  Instead, they send you on a wild goose chase deleting disk space.

To find out if the target disk is formatted as FAT32,

  • click My Computer
  • right click the drive
  • look at the Properties, which should say FAT32 or NTFS

If this helped, please email me!

To see the page on the Microsoft site where they tell you how to convert FAT32 to NTFS,
use the following link

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx