How can I simulate a disk full error in a Windows environment?

Question

I have to write a bat script for a test scenario where the software that we are testing fails to write to file due to a disk full error. The test script must be automated, so that we can run it on overnight tests, for example. The test script must also work at different computers, so installing a software like a virtual machine wouldn't be the best solution in this case.

How can I simulate that error in a Windows environment?

Answer 1

You could try writing to a full floppy disk.

Edit:

In light of your edited question, you could set up a network share with no disk space quota and write to that. The error will then be produced regardless of the logged on user or machine.

Answer 2

For Windows XP or later:

This command can get the amount of free space for the c:\ drive:

for /f "usebackq tokens=1-5" %%A in (`dir c:\ ^| find "bytes free"`) do (
    set FREE_SPACE=%%C
)

Replace c:\ with your drive, as needed.

You can then take some space away from this value so you have a little room to work with:

set /a FREE_SPACE=FREE_SPACE-1024

or however much space you want to keep free.

You can use the fsutil command to create a file to fill up the free space on the disk:

fsutil file createnew c:\spacehog.dat %FREE_SPACE%

Run your test, writing to the drive. After you write 1024 bytes or so you should run out of space.