Full installation to a drive other than C:

  • Working with a customer who installed SQL 2005 onto drive C: but it is running out of space. (not much to start with). Now they have put in a new drive D: and wanted to uninstall SQL 2005 and install it to D:. Yes I know about selecting the option then selecting the advance to select the location of that feature. No matter what i set it to, it still wants to install some stuff to the C: is this just normal or is it possible to install ALL of it to D:?

  • When you do the initial install, if you go through the advanced installer, in one of the sub-sections of the installable products you will find that regardless of your initial choice it defaults some of the visual studio common tools to the C drive.

    Once these tools are there, they cannot really be moved even though a SQL Server install can be moved.

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • The initial install of SQL Server 2005 will always put about 570 MB on the system drive.

    Most of this goes into the Windows global assembly cache (GAC) which can only exist on the system drive. There is a further approx 430 MB that can be put on a different drive, meaning that the initial SQL 2005 install needs about 1GB of disk space, plus room for your databases.

    A SQL 2005 service pack will add a further approx 800MB to the system drive, mainly due to GAC updates. Some CUs have been known to add a further 500 MB to the system drive. Items in the GAC very rarely get overwritten or deleted, so the GAC tends to grow quite large over time.

    To minimise disk space for SQL 2005 components, go directly to SP4 and allow for space to accommodate your CU strategy.

    The disk space requirements for other versions of SQL Server differ, with SQL 2008 needing about 3,000 MB on the system drive for the initial installation and 900 MB for a SP.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

    When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

  • As someone else said - installing SQL Server to a non-root drive still puts a LOT of crap in the root!! I would do one of two things: look for things you can delete from C to give you more size (all those blue windows update folders, temp directory crap, other install packages, etc). NOTE: removing some things can be problematic when other updates need to be installed!! I actually copy those folders elsewhere then I move them back if necessary later.

    The other option is to get a tool like Paragon's partition manager to resize the boot partition if you are lucky enough that they didn't make it the full size of the disk and there is (or you can create) some free space.

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

  • Thank you all for the extra information. I had the client increase the size of the C drive/partition and got past the installation issue.

    Again thanks...

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