Tough problem. You may need to call Microsoft Customer Support. At this
point, if it was my server I would start poking around and looking at
everything until I saw something odd. Obviously that is tough to do on a
newsgroup.
My best guess, and I'm guessing, is that you have a registry problem. The
instance name is stored in the registry, and if the service can't "get the
instance ID from name" then I'm suspicious.
I would attempt the following:
1) In the registry, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft
SQL Server, and then check the permission to that whole set of registry
keys. You are probably getting inherited permission, but I would then
explicitly grant full permission to your Windows Account, and to whatever
account is running SQL Server if different.
2) If that doesn't do it, uninstall again. Then go back to the registry, and
I'm betting that your registry entries weren't removed by the uninstall.
Delete the SQL Server entries because they may be preserving the root of the
problem. Then reinstall SQL Server.
Warning: Messing with the Registry can really foul things up. If you aren't
familiar with the registry, then I would go back to the idea of calling
Customer Support.
--
Rick Byham (MSFT), SQL Server Books Online
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Adam Porter" <REMOVE.adamp (AT) formulaboats (DOT) com> wrote

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-

Ah, fun times...I did have to delete the SQL Server entries. I had
originally tried the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, but apparently that
still didn't remove everything.

After cleaning up the registry and deleting the physical files in C:\Program
Files, I tried installing again. Now, it won't install completely. It gets
near the end and then gives Retry and Cancel buttons stating that the
service couldn't be started. The error in the Application Event Log is:

Error String : The SQL Server service failed to start. For more
information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL
Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."
The error is (3) The system cannot find the path specified.
Error Number : 29503

I ran across a link that recommends the CleanUp Utility, but of course, I've
already tried that.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

-Adam-