For a Microsoft Word 2003 version of this article, see
813997.
For a Microsoft Word 97 version of this article, see
180905.
When you save a document, Microsoft Word may stop responding or you may receive one of the following error messages:
There is not enough memory or disk space to complete the operation.
-or-
There is insufficient memory or disk space. Close extra windows and save your work.
-or-
There is insufficient memory or disk space. Close an application. (Path\File_name)
-or-
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
If this problem persists, contact the program vendor.
When you click Details, the following message is displayed:
WINWORD caused an invalid page fault in module WINWORD.EXE
Symptoms
There is insufficient disk space available for Word to save the file. When working with Word (and other programs for Microsoft Windows), the Windows swap file (Win386.swp) increases in size. This increase can be large and can use up most or all of the available disk space.
NOTE: This behavior has also been reported to occur if you are running certain versions of antivirus software.
Cause
To prevent this behavior from occurring, add more hard disk space, either by adding a larger disk drive or by using a disk compression utility.
NOTE: If you are running antivirus software, try turning it off. If this corrects the behavior, contact the manufacturer of your antivirus software for an update or workaround.
To work around this behavior in the short term, use any of the following methods:
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You may be able to recover some disk space by quitting unneeded programs. After quitting the other programs, it may take a few minutes before Windows changes the size of the swap file.
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You can free disk space by deleting unneeded files. For example, empty the Recycle Bin.
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You may be able to save your file to a floppy disk drive or network drive.
