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Unable to install SQL Server. Exit code (Decimal): -2147467259

Antony Vasanth 0 Reputation points
2025-07-28T09:49:53.5933333+00:00

I am trying to install SQL Server Express 2022

I tried to install it, and sot this error:

Unable to install SQL Server. Exit code (Decimal): -2147467259

Have attached the log as attcahent

Any help is much appreciated.

SQL Server | Other
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  1. Erland Sommarskog 133.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-07-30T08:26:48.17+00:00

    I am not surprised. Once you have gotten your machine into this state, it can be very difficult to sort it out. Sometimes people report success after the following the steps - I am surprised every time.

    The challenge here is that to sort this out, you need a very different skillset from being an SQL Server expert. Maybe I could sort this out, if it would happen to a machine that I have in front of me, but it would take a lot of time.

    Unless you are prepared to flatten your machine and reinstall it, or to make experiments with System Restore, I think your best bet in this situation is to create a virtual machine and install SQL Server on the VM, alternatively install a Docker image.

    I understand that if you have never worked with virtual machines or Docker before, that this is quite a hurdle. The flip side is that this is technology that is useful to master if you aim at being a developer.

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  1. Erland Sommarskog 133.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-07-28T19:29:18.3733333+00:00

    First things first: what hardware do you have? If you have an ARM processor, beware that SQL Server does not support ARM. The rest of the answer assumes that you have a regular x64 processor.

    I see this:

    (01) 2025-07-28 15:06:27 Slp: Sco: File 'C:\SQL2022\Express_ENU\x64\setup\x64\sql_engine_core_inst.msi' does not exist (01) 2025-07-28 15:06:27 Slp: Sco: File 'C:\SQL2022\Express_ENU\x64\setup\x64\sql_engine_core_inst.msi' does not exist

    My belief is that this is an error that occurs mainly in the situation when a user tried to install SQL Server and it failed with some error. The user might have tried some random cleanup and made renewed attempts. Because the cleanup was incomplete, Setup now fails with another error than it did originally.

    Could this apply to you? Or did this happen on the first attempt? (If it does apply to you, don't feel bad. I think it is quite a natural path to take.)

    Here is a link to an article that can help you to clean up properly: https://www.sql-easy.com/learn/how-to-uninstall-sql-server/. I have not tried it myself, but I learnt about it from a user who was in a similar situation as yours, and who was able to install SQL Server successfully after following the article.

    If you are on Windows 11, be sure to read the article Troubleshoot errors related to system disk sector size greater than 4 KB before you try again. It discusses a known issue where Windows 11 reports a disk-sector size that SQL Server chokes on. This could be the cause for your original failure. Check out this article, and if needed apply the workarounds it proposes.

    If you make a new attempt after cleanup, and it still fails, you find log files in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\nnn\Setup Bootstrap\Log with one folder per attempt. (nnn is a three-digit number that depends on the version of SQL Server you are trying to install). The files of most interest are summary.txt, detail.txt and any file with ERRORLOG in the name. (The latter only appears if Setup came as far as trying to start SQL Server). Feel free to attach these to the thread here.

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