XP Install error: Setup cannot find place for swap file

Question

Due to the death of my deskstar, I put in a Western Digital Hard Drive in my dell.  I was able to get it up and running but decided to reformat it to remove all aspects of office and various other applications.  Upon reformat with fdisk and western digital hard drive software, I get the same error when attempting to install a new operating system (XP Pro or Win2k).  THe error message is :  'cannot find place for swap file' and I get this as soon as I run winnt from the i386 folder.  I have changed the jumper settings to cable select, master and none and have reformatted the hard drive with NTFS and FAT32....same message.   Even tried with just 128k of RAM (both sticks)...same result. I have reformatted a variety of different ways with fat32 and NTFS as my active partion, having 2 partitions and still the same result.  I can not get to the part in the XP install to set a partition.  Also I have used fdisk from a win98 start up disk and Western Digitals Ontrack.  Even tried booting up with the XP / 6 disk start up set with no luck. I also tried having the cd rom as the first boot device and even tried unplugging the floppy from the boot sequence.  If I do not boot from a floppy, I still am unable to start the install ...cpu just sits there with no messages and a black screen

kbhersh · Answer

This is a Dimension 4100 and am trying to install XP Pro, SP1. Not sure how you would clear the NVRAM but I have removed the battery on the motherboard and upgraded the bios to the newest verison with no change in the error message.

I have used every possible setup disks with the same result

Flooby · Answer

It would certainly help to know which specific system model you're referring to, but for starters, did  you clear NVRAM via System Setup (as is generally recommended when adding any new hardware and/or prior to an OS reinstall) before you got started on the installation of Windows XP?

Flooby · Answer

How Do I Clear NVRAM on my Dellâ„¢ Dimensionâ„¢ System?

You should update the BIOS prior to installing XP on the 4100, so you're all set there. You should not require anything other than the Windows XP CD, as long as you've selected the CD-ROM drive as the first boot device, either through System Setup, or via the Boot Menu which may appear in the upper right corner of the Dell splash screen when you first boot the system, depending on the BIOS version present.

Windows General

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