Unable to uninstall sql 2005 on windows 2008R2

  • Dear,

    unable to uninstall sql server 2005 on windows 2008R2 server, when i click on uninstall from control pannel, after a while the uninstall window will disappear and it is not uninstalling.

    Thanks

  • Check the event viewer and the setup bootstrap logs they will give information as to what is going one.

    Although given how old that versions of SQL and the OS is, I would just destroy the machine instead after copying any information still needed.  As that’s a huge security hole waiting to be plugged.

  • I rarely do an uninstall.  What I do when I decommission a SQL instance is to stop the services and change them to disabled.  I've had odd hiccups when doing uninstalls and you never know when someone somewhere will ask "can we turn this instance back on to get data XYZ from the database?" and that way you don't need to restore from tape.

    That being said, if you are killing the instance and plan to get disk space back, the above still works as once you stop and disable the services, you can delete the user databases (or drop them prior to shutting it off) and the system databases are generally pretty small.

    Not saying it is ideal as you still waste SOME disk, but I've read a few times about things going sideways when you try to do an uninstall and I haven't wanted to kill a working and required instance by doing the uninstall poorly OR a bug in the uninstall...

    The above is all just my opinion on what you should do. 
    As with all advice you find on a random internet forum - you shouldn't blindly follow it.  Always test on a test server to see if there is negative side effects before making changes to live!
    I recommend you NEVER run "random code" you found online on any system you care about UNLESS you understand and can verify the code OR you don't care if the code trashes your system.

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