Article ID: 296858 - Last Review: October 18, 2001 - Revision: 1.1

Error Message: Windows XP Requires a Hard Drive Volume with at Least 318 Megabytes of Free Space

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SYMPTOMS

When you start Microsoft Windows XP Setup after you start your computer from a floppy disk, you may receive the following error message:

Windows XP requires a hard drive volume with at least 318 megabytes (333926400 byes) of free disk space. Setup will use this space for storing temporary files during installation. The drive must be on a permanently attached local hard disk supported by Windows XP, and must not be a compressed drive.

Setup was unable to locate a drive with the required amount of free space.

Setup cannot continue. Press ENTER to exit.

You may receive this error message even if there is a partition with sufficient free space.

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CAUSE

This error message can occur if the system partition has less than 8 megabytes (MB) of free space available.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, free some space on the system partition so that there is at least 8 MB of free space (Microsoft recommends 20 MB of free space). To free space on the partition, uninstall unnecessary programs, move files to another partition, or create a system partition with more than 8 MB of free space (Microsoft recommends 20 MB of free space).

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MORE INFORMATION

When you start Setup from a CD-ROM in MS-DOS mode, Setup creates a folder named $WIN_NT$.~BT on the system partition. This folder contains the boot files for Setup. There must be sufficient free space on the system partition for this folder to be created.

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