Not enough space left error

Using PhotoRec to recover lost data
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stevemp
Posts: 1
Joined: 20 Nov 2018, 15:54

Not enough space left error

#1 Post by stevemp »

I am attempting to run QPhotoRec against a SATA drive that is connected using a USB interface device. I set the destination drive to an internal drive that has over 500GB free.

After recovering a bunch of files I get an error dialog that says "There is not enough disk space left! Please free disk space and/or choose another destination"

As I said there is still over 500GB free on the destination drive when I get this error.

Any idea what could be causing this?

Thanks in advance!
Steve

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cgrenier
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Re: Not enough space left error

#2 Post by cgrenier »

A common cause is a FAT32 destination as no file bigger than 2 or 4GB can be created on FAT32.

When PhotoRec display this error, it stops the recovery of the current file and discard it, so there can be some space when you check the destination.

strukelj
Posts: 1
Joined: 28 Dec 2018, 10:28

Re: Not enough space left error

#3 Post by strukelj »

Hi!

Trying to hijack this thread so I don't make a new one. I've been getting the same error constantly no matter what (in my limited expertise) I tried.

The HDD I'm recovering from is 1TB, the HDD that I am recovering to is 2TB. After running WIP 7.1 all night, it stopped at 55%, saying there is no more space left on the drive. The 2TB drive only had 100GB of data on it. It was freshly formatted as NTFS.

Any idea on whats going on?

cgerard
Posts: 1
Joined: 03 Mar 2019, 16:58

Re: Not enough space left error

#4 Post by cgerard »

I have exactly the same error. I'm trying to recover zip and 7f files from a disk image mounted by FTK Imager.
The disk where I store recovered files is partitioned as NTFS, with 10 GB more left.
I tried to recover on a USB disk formatted as NTFS with 100 GB + free space.
Same error.
I've rebooted, verified disks, re installed photorec.
Same.
Any possibility to generate more detailed error messages to understand the issue ?

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cgrenier
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Re: Not enough space left error

#5 Post by cgrenier »

Disabling some file formats increase the risk of overlarge files.
The free space on the destination should be as large as the source partition.

giastop
Posts: 1
Joined: 07 Mar 2019, 08:48

Re: Not enough space left error

#6 Post by giastop »

cgrenier wrote: 04 Mar 2019, 07:08 Disabling some file formats increase the risk of overlarge files.
The free space on the destination should be as large as the source partition.
I don't get it: disabling file formats increase the risk? Logic suggests me it should be the opposite: picking up less file formats decreases the risk of large files.

I've a similar issue: I get "not enough free space available" (or something like that) when recovering FROM a 2TB TO a 4TB. Yes: destination is DOUBLE the source, to avoid issues, but it's not working.

More details:
I've a 2TB drive which was part of a 2 devices RAID 1; I've various 0 byte files and I'm trying to recover them via PhotoRec but I get the OP error.
2TB source drive is xfs and I've formatted as xfs the 4TB recovery drive as well.

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cgrenier
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Re: Not enough space left error

#7 Post by cgrenier »

For some file formats the header contains the filesize, in this case, PhotoRec will stop the recovery of the file when the amount of data is reached.
For the others, PhotoRec will stop when a new file header is found. Disabling most file format will increase overlarge file for this second category of files.

The free space on the destination should be as large at least than the source. If the source partition was 100GB and used at 25% only, you need 100GB available on the destination as PhotoRec may recover files that were deleted a long time ago...
The not enough space left error can also be seen for destination not supporting large file (ie. FAT32).

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