How to install SQL Server 2005 Express in Windows 8

Question

I tried to install SQL Server 2005 Express SP3 x64 on Windows 8 but the installer gives me an error:

An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL server native Client cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'sqlncli_x64.msi'

How can I solve the problem?

Answer 1

I had the same problem. But I also had to perform additional steps. Here is what I did.

Perform the following steps (Only 64bit version of SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition tested on Windows 8 Pro 64bit)

1. Extract sqlncli.msi / sqlncli_x64.msi from SP3 or SP4. I did it from SP4
2. Install sqlncli
3. Start SQL Server 2005 Setup
4. During setup I received an error 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."
5. Don't click cancel yet. From an installation of SQL Server 2005 SP3 or SP4 copy SQLSERVR.EXE and SQLOS.DLL files and put them in your SQL install folder.
6. Click RETRY

For STEP 5 above: Although I didn't try looking into SP4 / SP3 setup for SQLSERVR.EXE and SQLOS.DLL but if you don't have an existing installation of SQL Server 2005 SP3/SP4 then maybe try looking into the SP3/SP4 EXE (Compressed file). I am not sure if this may help. In any case you can create a VM and install SQL Server 2005 with SP3/Sp4 to copy the files for Windows 8

Answer 2

I had a different experience loading SQL Server 2005 Express on Windows 8. I was using the installer that already had SP4 applied so maybe that explains the difference. The first error I received was when Setup tried to start the SQL VSS Writer. I just told it to Ignore and it continued. I then ran into the same error Sohail had where the SQL Server service failed to start. There was no point in following the rest of Sohail's method since I already was using a SP4 version of SQLServr.exe and SQLOS.dll. Instead, I just canceled the install rebooted the machine and ran the install again. Everything ran fine the second time around.

The place I found Sohail's technique invaluable was when I needed to install SQL Server 2005 Standard on Windows Server 2012. We have a few new servers we're looking to roll out with Windows 2012 but we didn't feel the need to upgrade SQL Server since the 2005 version has all the functionality we need and the cost to license SQL 2012 on these boxes would have been a 5-figure sum.

I wound up tweaking Sohail's technique a bit by adding steps to revert the SQLServr.exe and SQLOS.dll files so that I could then apply SP4 fully. Below are all the steps I took starting from a scratch install of Windows Server 2012 Standard. I hope this helps anyone else looking to get a fully updated install of SQL Server 2005 x64 on this OS.

1. Use Server Manger Add roles and features wizard to satisfy all of SQL's prerequisites:
   • Select the Web Server (IIS) Role
   • Add the following additional Web Server Role Services (note that some of these will automatically pull in others, just accept and move on):
     • HTTP Redirection
     • Windows Authentication
     • ASP.NET 3.5 (note that you'll need to tell the wizard to look in the \Sources\SxS folder of the Windows 2012 installation media for this to install properly; just click the link to "Specify an alternate source path" before clicking Install)
     • IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
     • IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
2. Start SQL Server 2005 Install, ignoring any compatibility warnings
   • If SQL Server service fails to start during setup, leave dialog up and do the following:
     • Backup SQLServr.exe and SQLOS.dll from C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn
     • Replace those two files from a working copy of SQL Server 2005 that already has had SP4 applied
     • Return to setup, hit Retry and setup will now run to completion.
     • Stop SQL Service and restore orignal versions of SQLServr.exe and SQLOS.dll (or else SP4 doesn't think it is needed in the next step)
3. Install SQL Server 2005 SP4
4. Install SQL Server 2005 SP4 Cumulative Hotfix 5069 (Windows Update wasn't offering this for some reason so I had to download and install manually)
5. If you want the latest documentation, install the latest version of SQL Server 2005 Books Online.