October 4, 2017 at 11:23 am
How do i Correctly Uninstall SQL Server and it's components, Especially when i have more than one instance installed and also Visual Studio?
Last time, i had all of the SQL Server files corrupted and it prevented me from downloading and installing a new instance.I don't want to make that same mistake again. Please Advise!
Thanks!
October 4, 2017 at 12:33 pm
We always used add/remove programs to uninstall. You may have to reboot after each remove and revisit add/remove programs afterwards until anything with "sql" in the name no longer exists on the server.
October 4, 2017 at 4:11 pm
Is there a reason you want to uninstall? I have found that if you integrate SQL Server into any other tool (such as Visual Studio) or if you install updates (which you likely did) that it generally does not uninstall cleanly. The best bet I've found is to just disable all of the services and do a new named instance install.
If an uninstall is the route you wish to take, I would recommend taking a backup (if possible) then use add/remove programs to remove it as RVSC48 suggested. And when windows tells you "I need to reboot", reboot. Don't try uninstalling more things.
I am a little confused though - you say you want to uninstall SQL Server and its components, but that you have more than one instance installed. Do you wish to remove all instances as well (which would be required if you were removing all of its components)? If not, you will not want to remove all of the shared components or other SQL instances may fail to start or may have odd issues with them.
If this is a developers machine at a business, I would recommend doing a full wipe on the machine to reduce the chance of any errors.
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.
October 5, 2017 at 12:14 am
Thank You for the feedback. I meant by different instances e.g MSSQLSERVER, MSSQLSERVER2, MSSQLSERVER3. That's what i meant, have the one run in tabular mode and the other in Multi Dimensional..
@SSCrazy Eights, can you Please elaborate on this " to just disable all of the services and do a new named instance install."?
Regards!
October 5, 2017 at 2:36 am
As RVSC48 says, use Add/Remove Programs. You can choose which components and/or instances to remove. Sometimes you may need to go and manually remove folders and possibly even registry entries, although I wouldn't recommend going that far unless they get in your way. If the server is a VM, make sure to take a snapshot before you start work.
John
October 5, 2017 at 8:18 am
yrstruly - Thursday, October 5, 2017 12:14 AMThank You for the feedback. I meant by different instances e.g MSSQLSERVER, MSSQLSERVER2, MSSQLSERVER3. That's what i meant, have the one run in tabular mode and the other in Multi Dimensional..
@SSCrazy Eights, can you Please elaborate on this " to just disable all of the services and do a new named instance install."?
Regards!
All I meant by disable all of the services and do a new named instance was that in the event you want to remove one of the SQL instances but keep the other 2, or you want to install more instances, I would just disable the services via services.msc instead of uninstalling. It will free up the resources (minus the disk resources) from your system and you can still keep the different instances.
For example, if you have instances MSSQLSERVER, MSSQLSERVER2, MSSQLSERVER3 and you no longer need MSSQLSERVER but want to keep MSSQLSERVER2 and MSSQLSERVER3, I would just start up service manager (services.msc) and disable everything that has MSSQLSERVER. If you have no intention of bringing it back, I would first go in and detach or drop the user databases. The advantage to this is that in the future if you want to re-install a SQL instance, MSSQLSERVER is already installed and just needs to be turned on.
If your intention is to completely remove SQL Server from your system, I would recommend uninstalling all of the named instances (with a reboot after each one) and then uninstall the shared stuff (followed by another reboot) followed by a repair install on visual studio (as it'll likely be busted too if you completely remove SQL Server). If you have management studio or BIDS installed, I would recommend leaving those installed as they both tie into visual studio and are likely to give you grief if you remove them.
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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