Computer freezes when the target disk runs out of space

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Posts: 7
Joined: 15 Nov 2021

sr21ffs

I have noticed a strange but very inconvenient problem. A computer freezes when the target disk runs out of space (when only a few KB are available) when performing a synchronization operation; even though the computer's GUI seems responsive (I can try to execute actions), actions on the GUI have no effect (attempts to close or kill FreeFileSync, or even to turn off the computer or do any other thing, fail). This happens even when the recycle bin is not used in the synchronization options for the target disk. I get no error reported by FreeFileSync; it just gets stuck when copying or updating a file (no progress is made) and then I cannot stop the situation. Tested on MacOS.

Any ideas about how to solve or minimize this issue? What is the cause? Shouldn't the lack of space (or the lack of progress) be detected by FreeFileSync?
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Posts: 2450
Joined: 22 Aug 2012

Plerry

In the FFS GUI, via Tools / Options you can disable the Fail-safe File Copy option.
This will prevent FFS from making a spare copy of any "old" file until it is sure
(as sure as possible) that copying over the new version of the file has succeeded and only then removes the spare copy of the old file.
If copying over the new file fails, it will restore the old file.
In case your disk is almost full, this can obviously cause problems.