SQL Server 2022 Express installation issues.

Question

I have been trying to install SQL Server Express all morning. I run the installer as admin and make sure everything from previous attempts has been removed. Attached are my detail and summary files from my most recent failed attempt.

Summary_CLOGGER_20250211_151957.txt

Detail.txt

Answer 1

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\MSSQL16.MSSQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG.

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.

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.

Answer 2

Hi Ethan,

You install any version of SQL Server on a Windows 11 device. Then, you see errors similar to the following message for the Database Engine Services component of SQL Server:

Feature: Database Engine Services 
Status: Failed 
Reason for failure: An error occurred during the setup process of the feature. 
Next Step: Use the following information to resolve the error, uninstall this feature, and then run the setup process again. 
Component name: SQL Server Database Engine Services Instance Features 
Component error code: 0x851A001A 
Error description: Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed. Check the SQL Server error log for potential causes.

Which is same as mentioned in the error log.

Please follow the resolutions mentioned in the official documentation.

Regards，

Zoe Hui

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