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I had this problem when copying a large (50GB) disk image file (Macrium Reflect) from my Flash Drive to my computer.
"Out of Memory. There is not enough memory to complete this operation."
I had more than double the disk space, had about 12GB of RAM so the error message didn't make much sense to me. But this was largest file I could remember copying so thought the size might have something to do with it.
Nathan
Posted 2015-01-20T05:55:12.627
Reputation: 461
24
I downloaded Teracopy and tried using that to copy the file; it too failed but gave me a much better file error message: "Open Error: Access is denied"
I check the file Security Permissions (right click Properties --> Security) and indeed the current user did not have Read Access. I add the permissions and it copied fine.
I am guessing because the file was created from a Boot Disk perhaps it didn't know which user to assign the proper NTFS permissions to (although I think it could just leave it open to everyone?)
Also I think Windows 8.1 has a bug when it tries copying a file with wrong file permissions it falls through and displays the wrong error message.
Nathan
Posted 2015-01-20T05:55:12.627
Reputation: 461
I was going to say "Check your filesystem to see if you have FAT32", but I guess I would have failed a lot. I would never think about permissions. Nice catch! – Ismael Miguel – 2015-01-20T10:02:15.670
@IsmaelMiguel - It wouldn't have made sense to even mention FAT32 due to the size of the file which based on the description would have been 6GB. – Ramhound – 2015-01-20T12:25:18.747
16@Ramhound It actually would make sense. If you format a 32GB pen drive with FAT32 and try to copy a file that takes 4GB or more, it will say that you don't have enough space, even if you have 20GB free. – Ismael Miguel – 2015-01-20T12:36:15.343
1Alright; I see your line of thought; Yes indeed. – Ramhound – 2015-01-20T12:38:37.793
1Does Windows still have that annoying property that all file copies have to go through the boot partition? I remember (years ago) that trying to copy a file from a CD-ROM to my D: partition would fail if I didn't have enough space on C: for the temp file. – TMN – 2015-01-20T17:41:35.977
3@TMN: Did dinosaurs roam the earth at the time, too? – user541686 – 2015-01-21T09:21:01.857
@TMN: No, I don't believe so. At least as far back as XP I recall copying files that were almost certainly larger than the amount of free space I had on my boot partition at the time. – Lightness Races with Monica – 2015-01-21T13:23:28.923
@Nathan: Lol @ Windows 8.1. This is kind of funny. Glad you fixed it. – Lightness Races with Monica – 2015-01-21T13:24:12.770
0
I had this happen today while copying files off a SATA drive connected to a USB3 dock via an adaptor. When I went to check the drive for permissions (as per Nathan's answer) I found that the drives had vanished. I unplugged and replugged the hard drive and it worked fine afterwards.
Aaron Mason
Posted 2015-01-20T05:55:12.627
Reputation: 196
Hi Nathan. I made a few adjustments to your posts to make them even better. If you feel my edits changed your intent, feel free to roll back, or even better simply [edit] further. – a CVn – 2015-01-20T12:27:45.173
First question is what is the file system, NTFS? (if it's fat32, then it won't accept due to file size limitation) - next question is if it's defragmented such that a 50gb file can fit in a single spot. – user2813274 – 2015-01-20T18:59:43.943