Windows File I/O Error Codes Reference

Updated at January 28th, 2026

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Table of Contents

Quick Reference for Most Common Windows File I/O Errors Common File Access Errors (0-31) File Sharing and Locking Errors (32-89) Directory and Path Errors (100-150) Network and Remote File Errors (206-234)

Quick Reference for Most Common Windows File I/O Errors

These are the most common file I/O error codes:

2: File not found
3: Path not found
5: Access denied
32: File locked/sharing violation
39/111: Disk full
110: Filename too long
120: Invalid filename characters

These cover about 90% of file I/O errors in typical applications.

Common File Access Errors (0-31)

Code	Constant	Description	Common Causes
0	ERROR_SUCCESS	The operation completed successfully	No error
1	ERROR_INVALID_FUNCTION	Incorrect function	Invalid file operation
2	ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND	The system cannot find the file specified	File doesn't exist
3	ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND	The system cannot find the path specified	Directory doesn't exist
4	ERROR_TOO_MANY_OPEN_FILES	Too many open files	System file handle limit reached
5	ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED	Access is denied	Insufficient permissions, file is read-only
6	ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE	The handle is invalid	File handle corrupted or closed
8	ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY	Not enough storage is available	Insufficient memory
9	ERROR_INVALID_BLOCK	The storage control block address is invalid	Memory corruption
10	ERROR_BAD_ENVIRONMENT	The environment is incorrect	Invalid environment variables
11	ERROR_BAD_FORMAT	An attempt was made to load a malformed program	Invalid executable format
12	ERROR_INVALID_ACCESS	The access code is invalid	Invalid file access mode
13	ERROR_INVALID_DATA	The data is invalid	Corrupted file data
14	ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY	Not enough storage is available	Out of memory
15	ERROR_INVALID_DRIVE	The system cannot find the drive specified	Drive doesn't exist
16	ERROR_CURRENT_DIRECTORY	The directory cannot be removed	Cannot remove current directory
17	ERROR_NOT_SAME_DEVICE	The system cannot move the file to a different disk drive	Cross-device move attempt
18	ERROR_NO_MORE_FILES	There are no more files	End of directory listing
19	ERROR_WRITE_PROTECT	The media is write protected	Disk/file is write-protected
20	ERROR_BAD_UNIT	The system cannot find the device specified	Invalid device
21	ERROR_NOT_READY	The device is not ready	Drive not ready
22	ERROR_BAD_COMMAND	The device does not recognize the command	Invalid device command
23	ERROR_CRC	Data error (cyclic redundancy check)	Data corruption detected
24	ERROR_BAD_LENGTH	The program issued a command but the command length is incorrect	Invalid command length
25	ERROR_SEEK	The drive cannot locate a specific area or track on the disk	Disk seek error
26	ERROR_NOT_DOS_DISK	The specified disk or diskette cannot be accessed	Invalid disk format
27	ERROR_SECTOR_NOT_FOUND	The drive cannot find the sector requested	Bad disk sector
28	ERROR_OUT_OF_PAPER	The printer is out of paper	Printer error
29	ERROR_WRITE_FAULT	The system cannot write to the specified device	Write operation failed
30	ERROR_READ_FAULT	The system cannot read from the specified device	Read operation failed
31	ERROR_GEN_FAILURE	A device attached to the system is not functioning	General device failure

Code	Constant	Description	Common Causes
32	ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION	The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process	File locked by another application
33	ERROR_LOCK_VIOLATION	The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file	File region locked
34	ERROR_WRONG_DISK	The wrong diskette is in the drive	Incorrect removable media
36	ERROR_SHARING_BUFFER_EXCEEDED	Too many files opened for sharing	Sharing buffer full
38	ERROR_HANDLE_EOF	Reached the end of the file	End of file reached
39	ERROR_HANDLE_DISK_FULL	The disk is full	No space left on device
50	ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED	The request is not supported	Operation not supported
51	ERROR_REM_NOT_LIST	Windows cannot find the network path	Network path not found
52	ERROR_DUP_NAME	You were not connected because a duplicate name exists on the network	Duplicate network name
53	ERROR_BAD_NETPATH	The network path was not found	Network path invalid
54	ERROR_NETWORK_BUSY	The network is busy	Network congestion
55	ERROR_DEV_NOT_EXIST	The specified network resource or device is no longer available	Network device unavailable
56	ERROR_TOO_MANY_CMDS	The network BIOS command limit has been reached	Too many network commands
57	ERROR_ADAP_HDW_ERR	A network adapter hardware error occurred	Network hardware error
58	ERROR_BAD_NET_RESP	The specified server cannot perform the requested operation	Bad network response
59	ERROR_UNEXP_NET_ERR	An unexpected network error occurred	Unexpected network error
60	ERROR_BAD_REM_ADAP	The remote adapter is not compatible	Incompatible remote adapter
61	ERROR_PRINTQ_FULL	The printer queue is full	Print queue full
62	ERROR_NO_SPOOL_SPACE	Space to store the file waiting to be printed is not available	No print spool space
63	ERROR_PRINT_CANCELLED	Your file waiting to be printed was deleted	Print job cancelled
64	ERROR_NETNAME_DELETED	The specified network name is no longer available	Network name deleted
65	ERROR_NETWORK_ACCESS_DENIED	Network access is denied	Network access denied
66	ERROR_BAD_DEV_TYPE	The network resource type is not correct	Wrong network device type
67	ERROR_BAD_NET_NAME	The network name cannot be found	Network name not found
68	ERROR_TOO_MANY_NAMES	The name limit for the local computer network adapter card was exceeded	Too many network names
69	ERROR_TOO_MANY_SESS	The network BIOS session limit was exceeded	Too many network sessions
70	ERROR_SHARING_PAUSED	The remote server has been paused or is in the process of being started	Remote server paused
71	ERROR_REQ_NOT_ACCEP	No more connections can be made to this remote computer	Connection limit reached
72	ERROR_REDIR_PAUSED	The specified printer or disk device has been paused	Device paused
80	ERROR_FILE_EXISTS	The file exists	File already exists
82	ERROR_CANNOT_MAKE	The directory or file cannot be created	Cannot create file/directory
83	ERROR_FAIL_I24	Fail on INT 24	Critical error handler failure
84	ERROR_OUT_OF_STRUCTURES	Storage to process this request is not available	Out of system structures
85	ERROR_ALREADY_ASSIGNED	The local device name is already in use	Device name in use
86	ERROR_INVALID_PASSWORD	The specified network password is not correct	Invalid network password
87	ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER	The parameter is incorrect	Invalid parameter
88	ERROR_NET_WRITE_FAULT	A write fault occurred on the network	Network write error
89	ERROR_NO_PROC_SLOTS	The system cannot start another process	No process slots available

Directory and Path Errors (100-150)

Code	Constant	Description	Common Causes
100	ERROR_TOO_MANY_SEMAPHORES	Cannot create another system semaphore	Semaphore limit reached
101	ERROR_EXCL_SEM_ALREADY_OWNED	The exclusive semaphore is owned by another process	Semaphore conflict
102	ERROR_SEM_IS_SET	The semaphore is set and cannot be closed	Semaphore in use
103	ERROR_TOO_MANY_SEM_REQUESTS	Too many semaphore requests	Semaphore request limit
104	ERROR_INVALID_AT_INTERRUPT_TIME	Cannot request exclusive semaphores at interrupt time	Invalid interrupt operation
105	ERROR_SEM_OWNER_DIED	The previous ownership of this semaphore has ended	Semaphore owner terminated
107	ERROR_PROCESS_ABORTED	The process stopped because of CTRL+C	Process terminated by user
108	ERROR_BROKEN_PIPE	The pipe has been ended	Broken pipe
109	ERROR_OPEN_FAILED	The system cannot open the device or file specified	Open operation failed
110	ERROR_BUFFER_OVERFLOW	The file name is too long	Filename/path too long
111	ERROR_DISK_FULL	There is not enough space on the disk	Disk full
112	ERROR_NO_MORE_SEARCH_HANDLES	No more internal file identifiers available	Search handle limit
113	ERROR_INVALID_TARGET_HANDLE	The target internal file identifier is incorrect	Invalid target handle
114	ERROR_INVALID_CATEGORY	The IOCTL call made by the application program is not correct	Invalid IOCTL
115	ERROR_INVALID_VERIFY_SWITCH	The verify-on-write switch parameter value is not correct	Invalid verify switch
116	ERROR_BAD_DRIVER_LEVEL	The system does not support the command requested	Unsupported driver level
117	ERROR_CALL_NOT_IMPLEMENTED	This function is not supported on this system	Function not implemented
118	ERROR_SEM_TIMEOUT	The semaphore timeout period has expired	Semaphore timeout
119	ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER	The data area passed to a system call is too small	Buffer too small
120	ERROR_INVALID_NAME	The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect	Invalid name syntax
121	ERROR_INVALID_LEVEL	The system call level is not correct	Invalid system call level
122	ERROR_NO_VOLUME_LABEL	The disk has no volume label	No volume label
123	ERROR_MOD_NOT_FOUND	The specified module could not be found	Module not found
124	ERROR_PROC_NOT_FOUND	The specified procedure could not be found	Procedure not found
125	ERROR_WAIT_NO_CHILDREN	There are no child processes to wait for	No child processes
126	ERROR_CHILD_NOT_COMPLETE	The child process has not completed	Child process running
127	ERROR_DIRECT_ACCESS_HANDLE	Attempt to use a file handle to an open disk partition for an operation other than raw disk I/O	Invalid direct access
128	ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK	An attempt was made to move the file pointer before the beginning of the file	Negative seek
129	ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE	The file pointer cannot be set on the specified device or file	Seek not supported
130	ERROR_IS_JOIN_TARGET	A JOIN or SUBST command cannot be used for a drive that contains previously joined drives	Invalid JOIN target
131	ERROR_IS_JOINED	An attempt was made to use a JOIN or SUBST command on a drive that has already been joined	Drive already joined
132	ERROR_IS_SUBSTED	An attempt was made to use a JOIN or SUBST command on a drive that has already been substituted	Drive already substituted
133	ERROR_NOT_JOINED	The system tried to delete the JOIN of a drive that is not joined	Drive not joined
134	ERROR_NOT_SUBSTED	The system tried to delete the substitution of a drive that is not substituted	Drive not substituted
135	ERROR_JOIN_TO_JOIN	The system tried to join a drive to a directory on a joined drive	Cannot join to joined drive
136	ERROR_SUBST_TO_SUBST	The system tried to substitute a drive to a directory on a substituted drive	Cannot substitute to substituted drive
137	ERROR_JOIN_TO_SUBST	The system tried to join a drive to a directory on a substituted drive	Cannot join to substituted drive
138	ERROR_SUBST_TO_JOIN	The system tried to SUBST a drive to a directory on a joined drive	Cannot substitute to joined drive
139	ERROR_BUSY_DRIVE	The system cannot perform a JOIN or SUBST at this time	Drive busy
140	ERROR_SAME_DRIVE	The system cannot join or substitute a drive to or for a directory on the same drive	Same drive operation
141	ERROR_DIR_NOT_ROOT	The directory is not a subdirectory of the root directory	Directory not root
142	ERROR_DIR_NOT_EMPTY	The directory is not empty	Directory contains files
143	ERROR_IS_SUBST_PATH	The path specified is being used in a substitute	Path is substituted
144	ERROR_IS_JOIN_PATH	Not enough resources are available to process this command	Path is joined
145	ERROR_PATH_BUSY	The path cannot be used at this time	Path busy
146	ERROR_IS_SUBST_TARGET	An attempt was made to join or substitute a drive for which one of its directories is the target of a previous substitute	Invalid substitute target
147	ERROR_SYSTEM_TRACE	System trace information was not specified in your CONFIG.SYS file	System trace not configured
148	ERROR_INVALID_EVENT_COUNT	The number of specified semaphore events for DosMuxSemWait is not correct	Invalid event count
149	ERROR_TOO_MANY_MUXWAITERS	DosMuxSemWait did not execute; too many semaphores are already set	Too many mux waiters
150	ERROR_INVALID_LIST_FORMAT	The DosMuxSemWait list is not correct	Invalid list format

Network and Remote File Errors (206-234)

Code	Constant	Description	Common Causes
206	ERROR_FILENAME_EXCED_RANGE	The filename or extension is too long	Filename too long
230	ERROR_BAD_PIPE	The pipe state is invalid	Invalid pipe state
231	ERROR_PIPE_BUSY	All pipe instances are busy	All pipes in use
232	ERROR_NO_DATA	The pipe is being closed	Pipe closing
233	ERROR_PIPE_NOT_CONNECTED	No process is on the other end of the pipe	Pipe not connected
234	ERROR_MORE_DATA	More data is available	Additional data available

fileerrors iocodes

Windows File I/O Error Codes Reference

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Quick Reference for Most Common Windows File I/O Errors

Common File Access Errors (0-31)

File Sharing and Locking Errors (32-89)

Directory and Path Errors (100-150)

Network and Remote File Errors (206-234)

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