Problem: A common error message that we sometimes have during the installation of windows XP under MS DOS mode usingcommand i386/winnt is “No place for swap file” .
Solution:
Just after you execute the command winnt, XP starts looking for a proper place at the hard disk for copying its files. The format of this place must be formatted as DOS primary (FAT).
Using FDISK (a DOS utility in any Boot CD) to create the partion under DOS primary (FAT) format.
Once the installation is done, we can convert the format of the partition from FAT to NTFS and change to desired size.
Important note: Before installing by this method, be careful all data has been destroyed !