# Windows Movie Maker: Not enough storage Error



## Bent137

I've been working, slowly, on a video in Windows Movie Maker. Just recently it's started giving me an error when I try to play, pause, etc. It says there is not enough storage for that action. I've been using Movie Maker for some time, and not had this problem. It's really frustrating because I've tried everything I can think to fix. I've cleared my temporary files and emptied the recycling bin, even restarted. But it always gets to a certain spot, then freezes up and gives that error. But it used to play through that spot in my project before, so I don't get it. Any ideas? I had thought maybe this would have been common, but when I searched I didn't find anything quite like it.


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## Inactive

how much RAM and virtual memory do you have (on which ever machine you are using - laptop or desktop) ? if it is your desktop with winME, how much spare HD space is left of c?
have you worked on a video with similar size before?


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## Bent137

It's the laptop, and where can I find the ram and virtual memory listings?

And yeah, the last one I did was pretty big. full size song and a lot of pictures/clips. Mostly stills, but it was still fairly long.

Edit: I was just poking around, trying to find the ram and memory listing, and I found where it lists my free disk space, and I've only used a little over a quarter of my space. There's a button to do a disk cleanup, and also one to compress the disk to save space. Are either of those at all helpful to do? If not in relation to this then in general? Because they sound helpful, but sometimes it seems not everything in Windows that sounds helpful actually is.


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## koala

Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select Properties to see how much RAM you have (bottom of the General tab). Anything less than 512mb could be a problem.

If you're using XP, check your Virtual Memory (swap file) settings in My Computer > Properties> Advanced tab > Settings (under Performance) > Advanced. What are the Initial and Maximum sizes?

How many clips are you using to make the video, and what's their total size? There's a limit on the number of clips you can use, but this depends on the size of each clip and how much memory you have.




Bent137 said:


> There's a button to do a disk cleanup, and also one to compress the disk to save space. Are either of those at all helpful to do?


Neither relate to the error message you're getting, but generally disk cleanup is a good thing to do every now and again. Just be careful with the settings, as you could delete cookies or other things you might want to keep. Disk compression is not worth bothering with.

Another thing worth remembering is that Windows works more efficiently with at least 15% free space on the hard drive, preferably more if you're doing video editing which can create large temporary files. This is not a problem in your case as you have plenty of free space and the error relates to memory.


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## Bent137

Oooo... it says 384 MB of RAM

Virtual Memory is 576 MB

For clips I have 1 song and then 36 video clips. The clips go to about 1:45:00 minutes and are varying sizes, and I have the whole thing saved as a project, and so I looked up the size of that and it is .97 MB But I don't think that includes the clips for some reason. It just seems small.

I have a DV Camcorder, and I was considering installing the software that came with it (I was meaning to eventually anyway) but now I'm not sure if it'd fix it, being better, or if it'd just be better software for me to edit to the same exact point.


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## koala

The error message you're getting is caused by low memory, either RAM or virtual.

384MB is fairly low for an XP system, and video editing is very memory-intensive, more than most other types of software. You could increase your virtual memory (swap file) settings, but more RAM would be better. 512MB as a minimum and 1GB preferable.

The 0.97MB project file just stores information about the video clips and how they are positioned in the timeline, not the actual clips, so the size is ok.

Try editing the video in stages, so instead of having all 36 clips all open at once in the project, edit it in stages and save to video file before moving on.

You could try the camcorder software, but I think you'll run into the same problem with low memory. Then again, you might prefer it to Movie Maker, so it's worth a try.


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## Bent137

Okay, thank you. And to get more RAM, I can do that by going to Best Buy or something right? That's something they would sell that the Geek Squad there could put in?


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## koala

You need to install the right kind of RAM to match your existing sticks, so take the laptop along to your local PC store and they'll recommend the right kind and will probably fit it for you as well if you're not sure how to do it.


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## Bent137

Great, thanks so much!


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## Predator_123

Ok i have an anoyng problem it says: not enough memory, and it wont save my video from movie maker.((((( i have done similar videos and it had nothing.I really want too make this video pls help.I shut down everithing i could,i refreshed, restarted,emptyng recicle bin.I have a pentium 4 2GB ram windows XP so i have enough memory.Whats the problem?????:sigh::sigh::sigh:


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