not enough free space available

Using PhotoRec to recover lost data
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jefhon
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 Mar 2021, 16:11

not enough free space available

#1 Post by jefhon »

so i keep getting the "not enough free space" error message. now i have read many of the related forum threads on this and my problem is definitely NOT the size of my destination drive (1 TB completely empty now & new drive SSD so i know it is not corrupted or bad) & my source drive is only 500GB with 462GB unused as gparted claims. now my source drive IS in fact, corrupted, so this may also be behind my issues but i know for a fact that my data is still on the drive on its own partition and recoverable, so long as not too much of the drive is corrupted. my problem is also not that my destination file sys is FAT32.

i can't seem to mount my destination drive for some unapparent reason. this may be a blocking issue here as i understand for certain cases. other than this i cannot think why the program continues to see "not enough free space available" when my destination drive is clearly totally free and much, much bigger than the source drive (using ext4 file sys).

any help with this is greatly appreciated as i have put in many hours and blood & sweat on this.

jefhon

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: not enough free space available

#2 Post by recuperation »

jefhon wrote: 15 Mar 2021, 08:22 so i keep getting the "not enough free space" error message. now i have read many of the related forum threads on this and my problem is definitely NOT the size of my destination drive (1 TB completely empty now & new drive SSD so i know it is not corrupted or bad) & my source drive is only 500GB with 462GB unused as gparted claims. now my source drive IS in fact, corrupted, so this may also be behind my issues but i know for a fact that my data is still on the drive on its own partition and recoverable, so long as not too much of the drive is corrupted.


my problem is also not that my destination file sys is FAT32.
Please do not present your assumptions as facts. FAT32 is limited to a file size of 4GB p.e. Using FAT32 can very well be a problem.

i can't seem to mount my destination drive for some unapparent reason.
Documentation?! Nobody can help you this way. Crystal balls to the front line, please!

jefhon
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 Mar 2021, 16:11

Re: not enough free space available

#3 Post by jefhon »

ok well sorry about all that.
=
re: my inability to mount: i am attempting to recover data from a corrupted 500GB internal ata-western digital with 3 partitions. i began & did not successfully complete Ubuntu install to this disk (presumably because of the bad sectors); however, i was able to have a successful desktop session in Ubuntu ("successful" only in the sense that it worked until i ran into problems using photorec...). most current/refreshed info on partitions per gparted for the WD drive: part 1: ext4 with 46.58GB total size, 5.53G used, & 41.05 unused; status=not mounted---part 2: linux-swap with 419.18G total size, 0 used, & 419.18 unused; status=not active---part 3: unallocated with 2.02MB size.

my destination drive: Toshiba external 3.0usb with 1 partition: ext4, 931.51GB total size, 15.69 used, & 915.82GB unused; status=not mounted. UPDATE: i did a reboot because i couldn't successfully select a usable dest. drive due to the "not enough free space..." error & know gparted is sayinng that this Toshiba drive has 1.94GB used & 929.57 unused---i hope i didn't blow away some recovered files but just wanted to include this since i was obviously omitting way too much info.

this is why i know that having an equal size or smaller dest. drive is not my issue since my Toshiba is way bigger than my source WDD with more than enough free space on it.

however i read somewhere (i thought within photorec) that having a drive not mounted can cause issues in some cases so perhaps this is my problem. the mount option on the Toshiba ssd is greyed out and i don't know why.

i can see several files already recovered within photorec (still don't know where all of them are or how to access/use them but not worried about that yet).

if there's anything i may be leaving out please let me know. thanks so much & i apologize again for lack of documentation or any miscoms.
Last edited by jefhon on 16 Mar 2021, 14:20, edited 2 times in total.

jefhon
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 Mar 2021, 16:11

Re: not enough free space available

#4 Post by jefhon »

my problem is also not that my destination file sys is FAT32. [/quote]Please do not present your assumptions as facts. FAT32 is limited to a file size of 4GB p.e. Using FAT32 can very well be a problem.

sorry for any miscom there & i totally undersand what you're saying. what i meant is that i am NOT using FAT32 as my f.s. so this is not what is happening to cause the issue. apologies there.

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: not enough free space available

#5 Post by recuperation »

You never want your recovery source to be mounted - only connected. The target has to be mounted and must be writable, too.

jefhon
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 Mar 2021, 16:11

Re: not enough free space available

#6 Post by jefhon »

recuperation wrote: 17 Mar 2021, 20:36 You never want your recovery source to be mounted - only connected. The target has to be mounted and must be writable, too.
my source drive partition with the files that need recovered is showing as "not active" in gparted and is not mounted per your directive. my target drive is mounted & I still get the message "not enough free space available" even though there is 915.82GiB showing unused in gparted. i also made the drive writable using the chmod command in root terminal. still get the same message! ]


[still get same message "not enough free space available" even after starting a new session in photorec. i have 19 "recup_dir" files or folders (not sure which) recovered showing in root terminal. per gparted these are 15.69GiB total size on my target drive. is it possible that my source drive is just this corrupted & all the data cannot be recovered? i mean if this were the case would photorec give the message "not enough free space..."? or is it something else? also for the record: i have searched & read carefully all help documentation thoroughly & found no real help for this particular problem. please help! this same error message continues to appear after photorec stops working & i'm certain there is more than enough free space available!!]

wtf & expletives infinity! TIA for any help on this & sorry again for lack of info & any miscoms before.


jefhon

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cgrenier
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Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
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Re: not enough free space available

#7 Post by cgrenier »

Run "df -h" and check that there are free space in the destination directory you have selected when running TestDisk.

jefhon
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 Mar 2021, 16:11

Re: not enough free space available

#8 Post by jefhon »

cgrenier wrote: 20 Mar 2021, 20:50 Run "df -h" and check that there are free space in the destination directory you have selected when running TestDisk.
yes: 870G available per this command/check. 1% used. I also made the target drive mounted, rwx for all users. photorec stops time & time again with message "not enough free space..." so what do I do now?

and thank you for your help. No matter what I am loving & muchly appreciating your amazing work!

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cgrenier
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Re: not enough free space available

#9 Post by cgrenier »

When PhotoRec failed to append new data to a file, it deletes the file it was writting to and displays the message "not enought free space available".
If you run "sudo ./photorec_static /log", PhotoRec may give more information about the problem in testdisk.log file.
Do you have the problem with latest PhotoRec 7.2-WIP ?
Was the free space very low prior to the error message ?
If nothing useful can be found, it's also possible to run "sudo strace -e file -o log ./photorec_static" and check the end of the "log" file (run the command "tail log") when PhotoRec failed but the file will be very huge...

jefhon
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 Mar 2021, 16:11

Re: not enough free space available

#10 Post by jefhon »

cgrenier wrote: 22 Mar 2021, 20:54 When PhotoRec failed to append new data to a file, it deletes the file it was writting to and displays the message "not enought free space available".
If you run "sudo ./photorec_static /log", PhotoRec may give more information about the problem in testdisk.log file.
Do you have the problem with latest PhotoRec 7.2-WIP ?
Was the free space very low prior to the error message ?
If nothing useful can be found, it's also possible to run "sudo strace -e file -o log ./photorec_static" and check the end of the "log" file (run the command "tail log") when PhotoRec failed but the file will be very huge...
yes running 7.2-WIP & free space was very large, as in the entire 1TB drive was formatted prior to error message.

also: does it matter what type of file system my source drive was or is? it was originally NTFS but is now ext4 (written over only once). i have used photorec telling it both file systems to start but it works & then stops after recovering 15.69GB either way so perhaps it does not matter...

i will try these things & return. thank you very much.

3.24.21 : FYI I am "root@debian" while inside terminal so I shouldn't have to use "sudo" yes? anyway, i ran the commands mentioned above using 'sudo' & without it. for log file access command i get "no such file or direcctory" without using "sudo" and "command not found" using "sudo." for strace command i get "command not found" using sudo & without it.

should i try a new session & create a log? or perhaps it is there & I just cannot access it yet for some reason...? i will not do anything until i hear back. but i know it is working because i can see the recup directories & the files & then it stops. thanks in advance...
Last edited by jefhon on 24 Mar 2021, 18:50, edited 1 time in total.

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