The "can't write" error should not be related to the picture cache unless the drive that the cache is on is too full to provide the configured cache size. SONAR recycles the cache space as needed, so even if you fill it up you don't usually run out of space.
(However, I don't know what happens if you specify a very small cache size that cannot accommodate the current project. Presumably, SONAR would ignore the configured cache size rather than crash your project!)
More often, this error means that there was
some problem while writing to disk, and "might be full" is just the program's best guess as to why that might be. Unfortunately, that's not the only condition that could raise an error when writing data. Just the first one you'd want to eliminate.
For performance, SONAR allocates bigger chunks of disk space than is needed for the actual data, so it's possible to get a disk-full condition even when it looks like there should be some disk space to spare. A possibly related setting is the RecordPreAllocSeconds variable, which specifies how much disk space (in seconds of audio) to pre-allocate before starting to record audio. Setting this to a high value could cause you to run out of disk space prematurely.
Also, the disk that's full may not be the disk you're writing audio data to. It could be the drive that contains your paging file, usually drive c:. This can occur if you've set your virtual memory to a fixed size and told Windows not to adjust it - something often done as a performance tweak. So make sure you have some free space on all your drives, not just your audio disk.
Considering that the "disk full" interpretation of the error handler may be bogus, you have to look at all the many other problems that could cause a write error. A faulty disk drive or intermittent cable. A RAM problem. Windows permission issues. Spyware infection (rootkits). Background virus scanners. Make sure you can read, write, edit and delete other types of files in the target audio folder.
Some users have cleared up apparently-bogus disk-full errors by increasing the disk buffer sizes. If your disk were badly fragmented, I suppose this could help, but other than that I don't have a theory as to how or why that would help. I just mention it because I've heard that here before.
Others have had success by deleting aud.ini. This will reset everything to default values, just in case the problem is the result of some setting you changed such as the disk parameters (e.g. RecordPreAllocSeconds, EnableCacheWriteThru, DiskRecBufSize, etc.).
These are just some random thoughts on the subject that popped out of my head. Maybe none of them address your problem, or maybe one will trigger an ah-ha insight.
Afterthought: I was trying to imagine a scenario under which the picture cache could have anything to do with disk-write errors. I came up with just one: if one of the picture files was corrupt, or there was a badspot on disk where the pictures are stored, deleting them could clear up the problem. At least temporarily. I'm stretching here.
post edited by bitflipper - 2010/03/05 19:08:48