How to fix "Unable to install SOL Server (setup exel. Exit code (Decimal: -2068052294Error description: There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel"

Question

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Hi @Oluwasegun Bashiru ,

Thank you for reaching out and welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

As Erland said, I suggest you first try to clean up the installation traces.

Here are the steps to uninstall SQL Server cleanly, you can follow the steps below to resolve your issue:

1. Run 'services. MSc' to view all services, stop all services related to SQL Server.
2. Remove all SQL Server components from 'Programs and Features'
3. Backup the registry
4. Delete the the SQL Server related registry: --HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server --HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer
5. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and delete all the sub-keys referencing SQL Server
6. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services and delete all the keys referencing SQL Server.
7. Delete the relevant folders: Remove the physical path where the Microsoft SQL Server database is installed.
8. Delete the default installation folder of the system (If it is 64-bit, don’t forget to check the Program Files (x86) folder).
9. Reboot the machine.

NOTE: please use an administrator account to reinstall SQL Server on your computer (Right click->run as administrator).

Hope this can help you well. In addition, the issue of Windows 11 often exposing disk sector problems with SQL Server, you could refer to the article which mentioned by Erland.

I hope this helps! If you have any more issues or need further assistance, feel free to share with us!

Best regards,

Lucy Chen

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