Error status message from the ntfs.sys driver when some applications update very large files in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista systems: “0xc0000427 STATUS_FILE_SYSTEM_LIMITATION”
Comments Off Symptoms
When some applications update very large files (1 terabyte or 2 terabytes) in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista, you may receive an error status message from the ntfs.sys driver. The error status message may resemble one of the following error status messages:
0xc0000427 STATUS_FILE_SYSTEM_LIMITATION
0×299 ERROR_FILE_SYSTEM_LIMITATIONFor example, when you perform the dbcc checkdb action on a large database file, you may receive the following error message:
The operating system returned error 665 (The requested operation could not be completed due to a file system limitation) to SQL Server during a write at offset <address> in file <file name>.
Resolution
This problem occurs because the NT file system (NTFS) has reached the maximum number of extents. When the limitation is reached, NTFS returns the STATUS_FILE_SYSTEM_LIMITATION failure message.
Note An extent is a set of contiguous clusters on a volume. NTFS may allocate many extents to store a large file. All the extent information is saved in a file record in the master file table (MFT). If a file record is too small, NTFS allocates a secondary file record to store extent information. However, NTFS has a limited number of extents for a file. This limitation is defined by the maximum number of secondary file records of a file. The maximum extent number is reached when no additional secondary file record can be allocated to store extent information.
