Err Msg: Access Denied. Make Sure the Disk Is Not Full or...

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0, 3.0a, 3.1, 3.11
• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups versions 3.1, 3.11

SYMPTOMS

When you try to create a directory or copy files in the Microsoft Windows 3.1 File Manager, you may receive the following error message:

   Access Denied.
   Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected.

   Cannot create directory.

CAUSE

These error messages can occur when any of the following conditions exist:

• There is a file in the current directory with the same name as the directory that you are attempting to create. You can verify this with the File Manager Search command.
• You try to copy files and the destination path exceeds 63 characters.
• You try to rename a file that is being used by an application that uses SHARE.EXE or VSHARE.386.
• You have 512 files in the root directory of the hard disk.

RESOLUTION

To work around these errors, rename the file or directory that you are attempting to create, or copy the files to another location. You may also be able to work around these errors if you remove unnecessary files from the root directory.

MORE INFORMATION

You may encounter this error message if you try to create a directory whose path exceeds 63 characters. Windows follows the MS-DOS convention that limits the length of a subdirectory path to 63 characters.

The maximum length of any subdirectory path cannot exceed 63 bytes, measured from the beginning of the first name to the end of the last name (excluding slashes in front or at the end of the PATH statement). MS-DOS function call 47H (Get Current Directory) requires a 64-byte buffer in memory to return the current directory path. The returned path is not preceded by a backslash, but it is terminated by a 0. Therefore, MS-DOS allows 32 nested levels if each subdirectory name is one letter long. If path exceeds 63 characters, an error message is displayed.