Can A Full Disk Cause BSoD?

A full disk can be a frustrating problem for any computer user, but it can also lead to more serious issues, including the dreaded blue screen of death (BSoD) error on Windows.

When a hard drive is completely full, the operating system may be unable to perform necessary tasks, leading to numerous system errors and crashes.

In this article, let’s explore how a full disk can cause the BSoD, what you can do to prevent it from happening, and how to fix it.

What is a Blue Screen of Death?

The BSoD is a specific kind of critical error on Windows, which is displayed on a blue screen. You will know immediately that you’ve got a BSoD because the system will crash and give the following error message on a blue screen with a sad face icon: Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart.

It may then take a few minutes to gather more information before restarting automatically.

At the bottom of the screen, you should see a Stop Code that can give more information on the reason for the BSoD.

What is a Full Disk?

In basic terms, a full disk means your hard drive is at maximum capacity and there is no more space available for new data. On Windows, this usually refers to the primary hard drive where Windows is installed.

Even before the disk is completely full, Windows will begin displaying alerts that space is running out and this could cause problems for the operating system.

You can use built-in utilities to automatically clean up the drive without losing personal files. However, if you have too many large personal files, you still might have to delete some of them.

How can a full disk cause a BSoD?

One of the most common BSoD errors that can occur due to a full disk is the KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR error. In most cases, this stop code will be displayed at the bottom of the blue screen.

The error occurs when the operating system is unable to read or write data to the hard drive due to a disk-related problem. This can be a physical problem with the drive itself or issues within Windows.

A full disk can also cause this error because there is not enough space for the operating system to create a paging file, which is used as a temporary storage area for data when physical memory is low.

Another disk-related stop code is: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM.

This refers to issues with the file system, such as corrupted files or the inability to write to the hard disk.

Generally, a full disk will cause many different problems that can eventually lead to a BSoD. Therefore, it is important to prevent this from happening and quickly fix things if it does.

How do I prevent full disk errors?

Even if you never purposefully add new files to your hard drive, space will still reduce over time. This is because using Windows and browsing the web produces logs, temp files, and other junk that isn’t always cleaned automatically.

The best way to prevent a full disk problem is to regularly clean the drive. You can do this with built-in disk cleanup and storage sense tools.

To perform a disk cleanup:

1. Right-click on your drive and select Properties. Then click on Disk Cleanup under the General tab. It will then calculate how much space can be freed.
2. Check the file types you want to delete, such as temporary files, system files, and files in the Recycle Bin.
3. Click the OK button to confirm your selections and wait for the process to complete.

To use Storage Sense:

1. Go to Settings, then, in the System section, click on Storage.
2. Under the Storage section, click Configure Storage Sense or run it now.
3. If it isn’t already, toggle the Storage Sense On.
4. Select a schedule from the dropdown under Run Storage Sense.
5. Check which files to clean up, such as temporary files, old files in the recycle bin, and files in the Downloads folder.
6. Click Clean now if you want to run Storage Sense immediately or wait for it to run on schedule.

Alongside these native tools, third-party software like Fortect can do an even deeper clean.

To get started:

1. Download and Install Fortect on your computer.
2. Run the program and accept a system scan.
3. All unneeded files are cleaned under the Junk Files folder.
4. Click View & Fix to get rid of different file types or Start Repair (after product activation) to do a full system tune-up.

Some junk files are also removed under Broken Registry, which cleans the Windows Registry, and Privacy Traces, which clears your web browser caches.

Running Fortect at least once a month will keep your hard disk clean of junk and repair any other problems with Windows.

How do I fix a full disk BSoD error?

Any time your system experiences a blue screen, it has the potential to corrupt systems files and damage Windows.

The quickest way to fix a full disk BSoD error is to remove junk files and unwanted personal files that are taking up space. However, if system damage has occurred, you will also need to repair Windows.

Fortect does this automatically when you run the full repair process. Any damaged system files, DLLs, or registry entries are replaced with fresh copies from its repository of up-to-date files.

This avoids the need to reinstall Windows and potentially lose personal data.

A full disk is one of the many ways a blue screen of death can occur on Windows. Fortunately, it is one of the least dangerous problems. Most users can quickly solve the problem by cleaning their hard drives using native Windows tools or a good third party like Fortect.

If any damage has occurred, Fortect will also fully repair Windows and get your computer running smoothly again.