### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/21 "2018-11-05T19:04:02Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> Somehow I’m having to do customer support in my current job, and I get an email with an error attached, saying ‘Insufficient Disk Space’, asking “What does this error mean?”.
>
> It is literally the most clear and concise unambiguous error message in the entire history of computer science; past, present and future.
Is it, though? Consider:
“Your computer stores information on a hard drive. You can transfer information onto your hard drive by either copying it from a compact disc, or downloading it from the internet.”
\
“But I’m not using a disk! I’m downloading from the internet onto my hard drive!”
Bonus points if he’s got an SSD, so there’s literally no disk involved at all.
---
### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/22 "2018-11-05T19:04:29Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> For a while I was a Field Service Engineer for medical equipment. Often before I hit the road for a call I’d attempt a phone fix. For some problems, I’d ask the customer to try plugging a lamp into the outlet the device was plugged into to check if the outlet was working. I thought that was nicer than asking them to see if it was plugged in.
My first tech support job was with UPS which, for moderate-sized shippers supplied them the computer and label printer. It was a PC running Win 3.11 with the shipping client in the startup file. My first day I had a shipping clerk with the complaint that the screen is showing just C:\ “and a blinky line.”
I tried for fifteen minutes to get her to cycle the power to the computer. She’d shut off the monitor so I got her to trace the cable on the monitor that led to the flat box, which she did, then push down the big red switch on the right side. “There is no big red switch.”
I had her trace the power cord to the power strip (which we also supplied). “There is no power strip.” To where it’s plugged into the wall then. “I can’t find that. I don’t know why you’re getting frustrated, I’ve been to college.” I came _this_ close telling her to get her money back. Not wanting to spend more time trying to get her to type a run command (What’s a backslash?) I sent a tech out to restart the computer.
The rest of the time I was doing support I referred to that as my frog call, as in, “Eat a frog first thing in the morning…”
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/23 "2018-11-05T19:09:57Z")
Unrelated anecdote: I’m chatting right now with an IT guy remotely diagnosing a problem with my work PC.
Him: Are your fans going crazy right now?
Me: Yes, I’m very popular.
---
### Author:  [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/24 "2018-11-05T19:20:59Z")
🙂
---
### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/25 "2018-11-05T19:31:04Z")
xxx
---
### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/26 "2018-11-05T20:17:42Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> “You’re trying to jam 10 lbs of shit into a 5 lb bag.”
\What are pounds? Like weight or money? And why would I put shit in a bag?\
---
### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/27 "2018-11-06T04:04:55Z")
> [@filmore](#):
>
> I can certainly sympathize with you, but often the case is bad design of messages.
SAP messages always have the possibility to click on them for further detail. Some of SAP’s own are wrong (“inspection data not found” and it actually means “check your stocks”, stuff like that), some helpfully repeat the original message exactly (oh, very enlightening). If you’re adding messages (such as in a bespoke screen), you can put some content in that detail window. Can.
I once told a SAP programmer “I realize you probably don’t like being hugged\*, plus it would be awkward and stuff, but right now I want to hug you flat.” “:dubious:why?” “You’re the first programmer I’ve known who actually bothers put some detail into the ‘additional info’ window. Thank you.” “Oh. Yeah, it’s less work than having everybody ask ‘what does this mean’. You’re welcome.”
- he shook hands like he feared the other person’s fingers would come off
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/28 "2018-11-06T14:53:42Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> At least it was easier than “can you come fix my computer?” and not being able to get info out of them other than “I don’t know, can you just come over and fix it”.
In the early days of my army tech course some years ago, an instructor gave us a piece of advice that has stayed with me. He described an officer coming to us with a radio and announcing, in total, “The fucking fucker’s fucked.” The message was clear; we were going to be dealing with non-technical people, who only knew that some temperamental gizmo was getting in the way of them getting their job done. They wouldn’t care what the problem was, lacked the vocabulary to describe it anyway, and it wouldn’t help to try to make this a small teachable moment by telling them technical details that may be fascinating to us but were of complete irrelevance to them.
---
### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/29 "2018-11-06T15:46:12Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> It is literally the most clear and concise unambiguous error message in the entire history of computer science; past, present and future. When they make quantum computers that beam error messages into our cerebral cortexes, they will not be more clear.
Heh, 15 years ago I posted this on a thread about a brain chip being developed about the limits of memory:
> [@Scientists Develope "Brain Chip"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-develope-brain-chip/160987/10):
>
> I can imagine the first real life typical user/consumer follow up comment to that:
>
> Neat!! What a cool TV show from the last century! I think I will download the second season to this space in my left cortex!!!..…
>
> Doh! There goes the 20th season of the Simpsons. . .
Yep, customers will not get it about memory space, and it is more scary that the Simpsons are now in their 30th season!
[Brain explodes]
---
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/30 "2018-11-06T16:08:32Z")
I teach Adobe software, often to beginners. There are users (many of them “my age”, 50-death) who as soon as there’s a problem, well, it’s a computer, so they freeze up.
If their car or toaster had a problem they’d at least think “Huh, wonder what’s wrong?” If their TV or thermostat gave them an error message, they’d read it. But, it’s a scary computer… and it’s so far beyond their understanding that it never occurs to them that they might understand something about it.
I’ve done that “Do it again, AND READ THE MESSAGE.” So many times… sigh.
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/31 "2018-11-06T16:20:37Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#):
>
> There’s also this:
> Brand new 64 gigabyte jump drive. Person tries to copy a 5 gigabyte video file to it.
>
> Error: Insufficient space.
>
> Real problem: 4 gigabyte filesize limit on fat32 filesystem.
Always seemed weird to me that they didn’t develop the ability to auto split, especially since FAT32 is still used on SD cards below a certain size (and that size is not 4GB) and nearly all USB thumb drives.
My best guess is Microsoft was trying to make people use NTFS, and when that didn’t work, exFAT. The 4GB limitation is the main reason most people would care about the filesystem format.
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/32 "2018-11-06T16:27:49Z")
> [@filmore](#):
>
> How long have you been in support? Prepare yourself for lots of similar questions.
>
> There is a case where that kind of error has nothing to do with disk space.
A similar error is quite common on Android, not allowing you to install more programs even though you have plenty of space. It seems to be how the device chokes on file corruption. Also, there seems to be some file that has to exist in a particular partition that lists installed apps, and that can become too big: it’s like the Windows 3.1 “resources exhausted” problem that they wisely removed in Windows 95.
Of course, Explorer (at least up through Windows 7) would just hang the CPU if it hit corrupted file data while copying, and you wouldn’t even be able to actually terminate the task (due to some weirdness of tasks not ending while doing disk I/O). It should have always just failed on that one file and continued, listing it as an error later.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/33 "2018-11-06T17:26:36Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> Somehow I’m having to do customer support in my current job, and I get an email with an error attached, saying ‘Insufficient Disk Space’, asking “What does this error mean?”.
>
> It is literally the most clear and concise unambiguous error message in the entire history of computer science; past, present and future
I missed the implication of the quotation marks and was popping in here to ask “What the heck does _What does ‘Insufficient Disk Space’ mean_ mean?” Because.
---
### Author:  [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/34 "2018-11-06T19:36:58Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Always seemed weird to me that they didn’t develop the ability to auto split, especially since FAT32 is still used on SD cards below a certain size (and that size is not 4GB) and nearly all USB thumb drives.
>
> My best guess is Microsoft was trying to make people use NTFS, and when that didn’t work, exFAT. The 4GB limitation is the main reason most people would care about the filesystem format.
FAT32 was introduced with Windows 95, which can’t read or write to NTFS (nor can Win98 or ME). At the time the 4 gig max was much bigger than the 500meg to 1 gig HD sizes that home computers typically had. (I got my first DOS only PC in about 1993. It had a 100 meg HD, which was close to overkill at the time.) So it (the 4 gig filesize limit) was for all intents and purposes no limit at all. NTFS existed, but has more overhead, so it was normally only used for servers that required the additional security.
[From 1998](http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9806/12/harddrive.idg/):
> [@](#):
>
> Hard drives are getting so big they’re almost scary. Who really needs 8 gigabytes of storage, much less one of those gargantuan 14GB drives that are shipping with Pentium II 350- and 400-MHz PCs these days?
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/35 "2018-11-06T19:56:21Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> I missed the implication of the quotation marks and was popping in here to ask “What the heck does _What does ‘Insufficient Disk Space’ mean_ mean?” Because.
It’s a typo for “Insufficient D **e** sk Space.” It means your desk is cluttered up with so much crap, you can’t do any work on it.
---
### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/36 "2018-11-06T20:07:05Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#):
>
> [From 1998](http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9806/12/harddrive.idg/):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Hard drives are getting so big they’re almost scary. Who really needs 8 gigabytes of storage, much less one of those gargantuan 14GB drives that are shipping with Pentium II 350- and 400-MHz PCs these days?
I had a similar reaction in 1991 when I installed 350MB hard drive on my new computer with the 80386 processor. _Yup. I can’t see running out of room on this puppy for the rest of my life…_
---
### Author:  [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/37 "2018-11-06T20:19:52Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> I had a similar reaction in 1991 when I installed 350MB hard drive on my new computer with the 80386 processor. _Yup. I can’t see running out of room on this puppy for the rest of my life…_
Wow, that was an expensive drive back then. I think our computer has 120 or 160 MB of storage. If I wanted to play a new game I had to uninstall the previous one first.
I think that people are just spoiled with a lot of storage in all of their devices. I haven’t seen a low disk space/low storage message in years. I just did a bit of cleanup on my laptop when I noticed that my downloads folder was over 20 GB.
---
### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/38 "2018-11-06T20:26:23Z")
One of my favorites from my tech support days, back in the early 90s when office PCs were still kinda newish. One of the ladies working at the front desk called me because there was a document she was working on before she left the night before, couldn’t open it in the morning, and was certain that the computer had deleted it.
I calmly explained to her that the computer wouldn’t just delete her file, it had to be there somewhere, and started asking questions.
Me: What was the file called?
She: I don’t remember.
Me: What directory did you save it in?
She: I don’t know.
Me:. :smack:
I found it after poking around on her PC for a couple minutes, but jeez, a clue next time would be helpful!
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/39 "2018-11-06T20:42:04Z")
My first hard drive was five megabytes, and I was glad to have it.
---
### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-insufficient-disk-space-mean/824011/40 "2018-11-06T21:04:53Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> My first hard drive was five megabytes, and I was glad to have it.
My first hard drive was cassette tape - I even sprang for memorex!
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