Windows error 131 (ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK): meaning and diagnosis

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: A seek operation attempted to move before the beginning of the file or stream.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ECONNRESET	errno	Solaris
EOTHER	errno	Windows
OFS_FILE_SYSTEM	BugCheck Code	Windows

Previous	Next
ERROR_DIRECT_ACCESS_HANDLE	ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE

ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK

Log the original offset, seek origin, and arithmetic used to compute the new position before casting types. Fix underflow or invalid relative positioning at the caller rather than clamping negative results and hiding a size-calculation bug.

The requested file position is negative

ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK is returned when file-position arithmetic produces an offset before byte zero. This often comes from signed underflow, subtracting a header size from a small position, or using the wrong seek origin.

Checks

Log the current position, displacement, and seek origin.
Validate subtraction before performing it.
Use signed 64-bit arithmetic consistently for offsets.
Check conversions from unsigned sizes to signed positions.

Fix

Reject or clamp invalid positions according to the file-format contract. Do not continue I/O as though the seek succeeded.

References

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