The most common cause of SQL Server for Windows NT installation failures is insufficient disk space. If your SQL Server installation has failed, the first thing you should do is check your available disk space.
If you don't seem to have a disk space problem, check the SQL Server error log or the Windows NT event log, or check the installation output files for any information that might help you isolate the problem. For information, see Viewing Logs.
In some cases, disk space problems are caused by the Windows NT virtual memory page file (PAGEFILE.SYS) growing during installation. In these cases, the message written to the log will indicate that there is a memory allocation error. For SQL Server, the PAGEFILE.SYS file must be at least 12 MB greater than the amount of memory installed on the computer. For example, for a 16-MB system, the minimum PAGEFILE.SYS size is 28 MB. The more memory that is installed on the computer, the less space you need for your PAGEFILE.SYS file.
If you are running into installation problems caused by PAGEFILE.SYS growing during the installation, you can correct the problem by:
For more information about checking and configuring the size of PAGEFILE.SYS, see your manuals for Windows NT.
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