OFF97: "Insufficient Memory or Disk Space" Setup Error

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you run the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program, you may receive the following error message near the beginning of the setup process:

   Setup Initialization Error
   There is insufficient memory or disk space to run Setup. The Setup
   program requires about 5000kb of free disk space.

   Try closing any open applications, restarting Windows, or freeing some
   disk space.

CAUSE

This problem will occur if the following conditions are true:

• You are running the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program using the "/l" switch and a reference to a custom .lst file. The command line you are using resembles the following:

        <path>\setup /l custom.lst
  

  -and-

• You have modified the custom .lst file so that it refers to a setup table file (.stf file) other than Off97pro.stf or Off97std.stf, and/or to an information file (.inf file) other than Off97pro.inf or Off97std.inf.

  -and-

• The .stf file or .inf file in question has a long file name: that is, the first part of its name exceeds eight characters in length. For example, the first part of Longfilename.stf contains twelve characters, so the problem will occur.

RESOLUTION

Microsoft Office 97 Setup will not function correctly if the name of your setup table file or information file exceeds eight characters in length. You can prevent this problem from occurring by performing the following tasks:

1. Rename your setup table file or information file so that its name does not exceed eight characters in length. For example:

         Custom.stf     Custom.inf
         Custom97.stf   Custom97.inf
         Special.stf    Special.inf
   
   

2. Edit your custom .lst file so that it correctly refers to the renamed .stf file and/or .inf file. For more information on how to do this, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

         ARTICLE-ID: Q158281
         TITLE     : OFF97: How to Use Custom STF Files with MS Office 97
                     Setup
   
      Begin with step 5 of the Workaround section.
   
   

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

The Setup program used by Microsoft Office 97 uses several files, including a setup table file (.stf), a list file (.lst), and an information file (.inf).

Because of the design of the Setup program, it will fail if the .stf file and/or .inf file you are using has a name whose length exceeds eight characters.

NOTE: Although it is permissible for your .lst file to have a name whose length exceeds eight characters, Microsoft recommends that you limit it to eight.