Uninstalling SQL Server 2005 after a domain name change

I have installed a new Windows Server 2008 server (domain controller) with SQL Server 2005. Then I had to change the domain name and ran into problems with SQL Server. It would not start easily and it could not be uninstalled.

I got the following error message: "The setup has encountered an unexpected error while Setting Internal Properties. The error is: Fatal error during installation." and in the setup log files I found entries like "

After a long search I found the solution in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 919945 and 925976. It boils down to emptying four registry entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.2005\Setup or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.X\Setup:

  • SQLGroup
  • FTSGroup
  • AGTGroup
  • ASGroup.

Do not delete the entries! Just empty them.

Then I could uninstall SQL Server.

Be aware that you might not have all mentioned groups. It depends on the features of SQL Server that you installed.

posted @ Wednesday, May 26, 2010 2:15 PM

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