SQL Server 7.0: Installation Issues

2. Check the software requirements.

You should have:

For Desktop Edition:

For Standard Edition:

For Enterprise Edition:

3. Check the hardware compatibility list.

For more information about the specific supported hardware, look at the hardware compatibility list at http://www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl/

4. Login with the administrator level permissions on the machine.

SQL Server needs these permissions to create registry entries, create services and so on.

5. Check that network card or Microsoft loopback adapter presents on the machine.

SQL Server needs to use network functionality, so you should have network card, or dummy driver Microsoft loopback adapter, which pretends to be a network card :)

6. Use the LocalSystem account for MSSQLServer and SQLServerAgent services.

You can change it later to appropriate account, and you will have more chance to install SQL Server without problems.

7. Before reinstall SQL Server 7.0, delete the following registry entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSSQLServer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SQLServerAgent
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server 7
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServ70

and delete the target installation directory (C:\MSSQL7 by default).

8. For upgrade from version 6.5, check that the default database for the login 'sa' is master.

9. You can stop some services, which can cause installation failure.

Stop the following services/close the following programs:

For more details see:
Troubleshooting SQL Installation and Connection Problems Are there any extraneous services running, and do you have network connectivity?
http://support.microsoft.com/support/SQL/Content/setup/setup1.asp?LN=EN-US&SD=SO&FR=0

10. For upgrade from MSDE to SQL Server 7.0, maybe necessary to edit some registry entries.

If you receive the following error:

You cannot install a version which is older (7.00.623) than the
version on your machine (7.00.677). Uninstall the older version.

then you should amend

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/MSSQLServer/MSSQLServer/CurrentVersion to have a value of 7.00.623.

For more details see:
Q234915 - FIX: Upgrade to SQL Server Fails When MSDE Installed from MOD
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q234/9/15.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=SO&FR=0

11. For more details about installation errors see the following files: