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Hi, I’m unable to install SQL Server 2025 Express or 2019 Express.
The setup fails every time with:
Error: Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed
Exit code: -2061893606 (0x851A001A)
Component: SQL Server Database Engine Services
The setup detects old leftover instances:
SQLEXPRESS, SQLEXPRESS01, SQLEXPRESS02, SQLEXPRESS03, SQL_AILIN
None of these services exist or can start.
I’ve already removed all SQL components, deleted all SQL folders, cleaned the registry, and rebooted.
Still, the installation fails at the same step — the SQL Engine cannot initialize.
Any ideas what could still block the SQL Server Database Engine from starting during setup on Windows 11 Home?
Thanks!
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Hi @Ailin,
I'm following up to check if the response provided below was helpful.
Please let us know if your issue has been resolved. If you still have any questions or need further assistance, don't hesitate to get in touch we're happy to continue supporting you.
We appreciate your participation and thank you for being an active member of the community.
Best regards,
Lakshmi.
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This is probably seervice account configuration.
uninstall SQL server all components and then restart PC.
Installl again and During the installation, on the Server Configuration screen, change the account name for the Database Engine Services to a built-in account like NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE or NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE.
I don't think this is likely to be the solution. Moreover, all we know is that SQL Server does not start. Until we know why it doesn't start, we should shot from the hip and guess wildly.
The message Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed is a generic error that means that SQL Server did not start when Setup wanted to run configuration steps. To understand why it did not start, you need to look in the SQL Server errorlog, which you find in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL17.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\LOG\SQLEXPRESS.
If you see a message about 256 misaligned reads, you are running into a known issue where Windows 11 for some disk drives reports a sector size that SQL Server does not cope with. Microsoft has published an article with workarounds for the problem. Although, for SQL 2025 there should be a warning when you run Setup to alert you about the problem.
If you don't see the message about misaligned reads, feel free to upload the errorlog here, so we can look at it. You will need to rename to ERRORLOG.txt for the forum software to accept it.