Error: The attempt to save the data file has failed because the disk is full, an I/O error has occurred, the variable dictionary is invalid, or the task was interrupted.
August 23rd, 2006 andris
We received a question from Ilan Shrira, who got an error while saving a file:
I just bought a 120 gigabyte external hard drive, and whenever I try to save an SPSS file
that’s more than 4 gigabyte onto it, it stops and says “Warning #5322, The attempt to save the data file has failed because the disk is full, an I/O error has occurred, the variable dictionary is invalid, or the task was interrupted”
I didn’t have any trouble saving 2 or 3 gigabyte files of the save type. Is is possible that there’s some other kind of glitch in my file.”
To our information there is no limitation in file size, variables or cases. This information is not checked with SPSS, since we do not have a support contract. If anyone else has and is willing to ask SPSS about this, we would be very thankfull. But, the cause is probably an error in the data or variables.
The error has been discussed in the SPSSX-L mailinglist. In this discussion Raynald Levesque suggests the following cause to the problem:
“If you have string variables, check that the number of characters differs
from the declared length of that variable.
eg if you have a variable declared as format A2 but that variable contains 3
characters. In recent versions of SPSS, more integrity tests are performed
when saving a file and this would cause an error.”
You can check your file by hand or use the automated method Raynald suggest in his second post.
Entry Filed under: Questions and answers, SPSS Errors
9 Comments Add your own
1. sean stacey | December 14th, 2006 at 2:44 am
One suggestion - the original poster does not state what file system is on the external hard drive. If the file system is FAT32 (e.g. for compatibility with Windows 9x, Linux/Unix, etc) then the maximum size of a file on that system is 4GB.
If the file system on this drive is NTFS [on a Linux/Unix system, EXT3 or Reiser] then this possiblity can of course be eliminated.
Just my £0.02.
2. andris | December 14th, 2006 at 3:52 am
Sean, thank you for your great addition.
3. Steve Suo | January 17th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
I am encountering the identical problem as Ilan Shrira, although the cut-off for me appears to be around 3.5 gigabytes. I am importing text files and then running SAVE OUTFILE as a .SAV file. I am running on FAT32.
I am fairly convinced that Sean Stacey’s answer is probably the correct one. SPSS support said it was a duplicate variable, which I think is incorrect in my case. I also checked for string lengths, as per Raynald Levesque.
If it’s the file system, does anyone have a workaround other than switching to Linux? I have a number of 10 and 20 gigabyte files I would really like to process in SPSS.
4. andris | January 18th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Steve,
The maximum file size on a FAT32 formatted partition is
4 GB.
The maximum file size on a FAT16 partition
under Windows 9.x and ME is 2 GB, under Windows NT or 2K is 4 GB. And the NTFS file system has a (theoretical) maximum file size of 16 exabytes.
As Sean Stacey already stated, the maximum file size under FAT32 is 4GB. That is probably causing the error in your case. This can also be the cause of the error with other people, so this is a good addition to the log posted above.
To my opinion you do not have to switch to Linux, you can also use the NTFS file system. This file system works (without workarounds) only with the Windows versions 2000 and XP.
5. Steve Suo | January 25th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Thanks very much. I have switched to NTFS, and the problem is solved! I just saved my first 6.6 gig file. Currently testing the limits with a 30 gig file….
6. Kristina McDougal | March 10th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
How do I switch to NTFS?
7. andris | March 11th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Hi Kristina,
It’s not easy to switch to NTFS, especially not when you have the hard disk in use already. If you’re not a computer expert, please ask someone to do it for you. But basically, you need to format the hard disk and choose NTFS as your file system.
8. Maryann Durland | August 28th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I just ran into this problem and followed the advice about string values. My file was way below the max. I changed several string value widths and that allowed me to save the file. Thanks for the help! I appreciated it very much.
9. Jeremy | October 19th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Yeah Maryann, I did the same thing. I’m importing from SQL, and apparently my version of SPSS doesn’t understand nvarchar(max) data type. It converts this to type string with a length of zero. I was able to save the SPSS file after changing the string length.
So I switched the SQL columns to nvarchar(4000), let’s see how that works.
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