Disk Space Full Error - Win98

Hi,

I am currently trying to resolve a problem for a collegue who is having regular problems with his laptop(s). He has regularly been getting the following error:

Hard disk is full - You have run out of space on drive C. To free space on this drive bla bla bla...(Disk Cleanup option)

He actually has about 800Mb free on drive C.

His original laptop is an IBM 390X
Celeron 400, 64Mb Ram, 6.4 Gig HD

I have tried several clean re-installs (IBM recovery CD which factory partitions the 6.4Gig drive into C: 2Gig FAT16 and D: 4 Gig FAT32), but the error keeps reappearing. I tried converting the FAT16 to FAT32 on one rebuild which didn't help either. He doesn't even have to be doing anything at the time - it just happens. At first it seemed to mainly happen when he was printing or defragging.

I happened to have access to another slightly newer IBM 390X. This machine is basically the same machine with a PIII 450 and a 12 Gig Drive. The IBM recovery still gives C: a 2Gig FAT16 partition with the remaining space going to a FAT32 D:.

I did a clean recovery on this machine and copied his data accross and all was well - for about 24 hrs. The same problem happened on the 2nd laptop. The only common factor between the 2 machines is his data (which we virus scanned) and his printer (HP610C).

Sometimes when the problem occurs, Windows reports the free space differently depending on where you lookfor example "My Computer" will show 798Mb free but the "Properties" pie chart show only 4Mb free. Sometimes the error will persist through a re-boot, and sometimes I can clear it by deleting a single file or even doing a file search.

By the way, his data (about 650-700mb) goes onto drive D: each time, so he has heaps of free space on D:

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

What dose he have virtual mem set as ?? Could the page file be using up all that room ?? ..........

 

One more thing. OS is Win98 SE. I have tried applying all updates from the Windows update website and also tried not doing any updates.

 

Good question ACE - it's set to let windows manage vitual memory. Do you think that would be a problem

 

hes got 64Mb mem right, if so set it at 64 min and ~200 max and see if stops

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try that and see how it goes over the weekend.

 

ok thats the only thing i can think of .........