Insufficient Disk Space Error Message During Backup to a File

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This article was previously published under Q250651

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SYMPTOMS

When you try to use Microsoft Backup to back up your Windows 98-based computer contents to a file, you may receive the following error message:

Insufficient disk space exits to continue the current operation. Please free some disk space and retry the operation.

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CAUSE

This issue can occur if you back up more than 4 gigabytes (GB) of data to a hard disk that is formatted using the 32-bit File Allocation Table (FAT32) file system.

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RESOLUTION

To work around this issue, configure Microsoft Backup to use multiple backup jobs when you need to back up more than 4GB of data to a FAT32 hard disk.

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STATUS

This behavior is by design.

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This issue does not affect the ability of Microsoft Backup to back up more than 4 GB of data to backup devices such as tape drives. For additional information about using Microsoft Backup, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

182624 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/182624/EN-US/ ) Microsoft Backup System Requirements for Windows 98

187526 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187526/EN-US/ ) How to Restore Windows 98 from a Full System Backup

For additional information about the FAT32 file system, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

154997 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154997/EN-US/ ) Description of the FAT32 File System

192322 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192322/EN-US/ ) Description of Default Cluster Sizes for FAT32 File System

180134 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/180134/EN-US/ ) How to Convert a Drive to FAT32 Using Drive Converter

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