It was a machine I had lent to my brother. After a year it came back and this among other errors along with no ActiveSync (now called WMDC) so after a few hours and waiting a week to see if I had any other bright ideas I found too many missing registry entires. Seems my brother had used a registry cleaner.
That helped me along since we know these can do deep damage.
It's works fine now. I used the recovery media on the laptop and everything works again.
Bob
Hi All,
I get the above error msg. while attempting to install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools. This always occurs during the 'setup' process. When I investigate, I find that the service is running.
I am running Windows Vista Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron 530S dual-booted with Linux Mandriva and Ubuntu. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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