Unable to install SQL Server (setup.exe). Exit code (Decimal): -2061893606 Error description: Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed. Check the SQL Server error log for potential causes.

Question

I am trying to install SQL server 2022 and I keep getting the same error: Unable to install SQL Server (setup.exe). Exit code (Decimal): -2061893606 Error description: Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed. Check the SQL Server error log for potential causes.

This is the error message:

Error.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.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG. Note that the component MSSQL16.MSSQLSERVER is for a default instance of SQL 2022. If you are trying to install a named instance, this component will have a different name.

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.