SQL Server 2016 Express Installation Error

  • wbc2 - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 7:53 AM

    Thom A - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 7:34 AM

    if you have the ability to, now is an excellent time to make a backup of your PC (and set a restore point, as it's a home PC).

    I haven't search, but it might be just worth seeing if you can find any other articles that cover the same steps, just to make sure they agree with each other.

    Other than that, I can't not sure what else to suggest. Generally with things like this you do end up being quite brutal to your machine (in the sense of you're getting rid of every aspect of whatever remains). As long as your don't stray from the path the article says you should be fine (don't go playing with your OS or other application settings, for example).

    Will do. My only real concerns are deleting the Registry (sub)keys and SQL 2016 folders. Thx for the input.
    Bill

    Back them up first 🙂

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  • Thom A - Saturday, January 14, 2017 11:40 AM

    There's an article on TechNet about this on for SQL 2008-2014, I would hazard a guess that the same would apply for 2016 as well: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/24364.sql-server-troubleshooting-could-not-find-database-engine-startup-handle-error-during-installation.aspx

    If that doesn't help, could you past your error logs here? They should be located in: %programfiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Setup Bootstrap\Log\
    You may need to amend the path, depending where you attempting to install SQL Server.

    Well, I would like thank all who provided feedback on this. Nevertheless, after following the instructions in the article(s) ( uninstalling, removing registry keys, folders, etc. ) and trying to reinstall, I got the same error. This time it would not even uninstall so I had to perform surgery to get the various embedded elements off the computer. At this point I will probably just continue to use SQL 2012 on the machine and dump 2016.
    I still have a reference in Services to SSRS for SQL 2016 which, at this point, I have no idea how to remove since there is no uninstall option visible. (sigh) The whole thing is pretty typical of MS junk.
    Bill

  • Thom A - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 7:34 AM

    if you have the ability to, now is an excellent time to make a backup of your PC (and set a restore point, as it's a home PC).

    I haven't search, but it might be just worth seeing if you can find any other articles that cover the same steps, just to make sure they agree with each other.

    Other than that, I can't not sure what else to suggest. Generally with things like this you do end up being quite brutal to your machine (in the sense of you're getting rid of every aspect of whatever remains). As long as your don't stray from the path the article says you should be fine (don't go playing with your OS or other application settings, for example).

    For any interested, after completely removing the failed SQL 2016 Express files installed, I decided to try to download/install the SQL 2016 Developer Version. This install all the way through and completed. Go figure.
    Bill

  • wbc2 - Monday, January 30, 2017 11:08 AM

    Thom A - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 7:34 AM

    if you have the ability to, now is an excellent time to make a backup of your PC (and set a restore point, as it's a home PC).

    I haven't search, but it might be just worth seeing if you can find any other articles that cover the same steps, just to make sure they agree with each other.

    Other than that, I can't not sure what else to suggest. Generally with things like this you do end up being quite brutal to your machine (in the sense of you're getting rid of every aspect of whatever remains). As long as your don't stray from the path the article says you should be fine (don't go playing with your OS or other application settings, for example).

    For any interested, after completely removing the failed SQL 2016 Express files installed, I decided to try to download/install the SQL 2016 Developer Version. This install all the way through and completed. Go figure.
    Bill

    Glad you got it working.
    If you are looking to remove any services from your system, look at the command:
    sc delete <service name>

    Run that from an elevated command prompt, repalce <service name> with the service you are looking to kill off and it'll be gone, presuming your registry isn't fubar.  Services are really just registry enteries.
    And as for express not uninstalling nicely, I am betting that the article (I didn't read it) is only explaining how to remove the SQL Engine, not how to clean out the extra stuff (SSRS, SSIS, SSAS, etc).  That'd take a little more digging.
    As for the original errors, you had said it was not being run as administrator which can make for quite the headache for sure.  I don't know why MS didn't just make it always run as admin?  SQL 2016 Standard asks for admin permissions at install time if it doesn't have them.

    The above is all just my opinion on what you should do. 
    As with all advice you find on a random internet forum - you shouldn't blindly follow it.  Always test on a test server to see if there is negative side effects before making changes to live!
    I recommend you NEVER run "random code" you found online on any system you care about UNLESS you understand and can verify the code OR you don't care if the code trashes your system.

  • Thx for the additional info, and agree on your comments. Sometimes ( well, more than sometimes 🙂 ) MS can be infuriating, especially since something like Express should an installation no-brainer.
    Bill

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