Delete an instance in 2005 Express
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I am not an expert on SQL Server admin issues, not by a very long shot; I only know enough to design databases for my VB.NET coding projects.
I recently downloaded and installed SQL Server 2005 Express, and then had a hell of a time trying install Management Studio Express properly.
After about 40 attempts installing and uninstalling (do not laugh!), I finally managed to get it work right. My selected setting is Windows Authentication Mode and for the life of me, I cannot remember if I left the sa password as blank or set it to something as I have tried all possible phrases and failed.
What has saved me is that, all those attempts ended up creating two instances: SQLEXPRESS and MSSQLSERVER.
While I cannot log on to the first one, I can log on to the other one with my Windows login.
Although I log in to Windows as an Administrator, I had a brief scare when I could not create databases on MSSQLSERVER because of Windows UAC. I solved that out by launching MSE with Admin privileges and then adding my Windows account to sysadmin role.
I now want to:
1. Delete the SQLEXPRESS instance permanently
2. Retrieve my sa password
Any help will be appreciated.
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if you can login with your windows login, it doesn't matter what the current password is for sa, just change it to a new, known password: you can rightclick>>Properties of the sa login in the GUI, or:
USE [master]
GO
ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH PASSWORD=N'NotARealPassword'
GO
to remove the installation, you just go to control panel add/remove programs...you'll see your sql instance in there.
ps: love your sig line!
Lowell
--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible! -
Thanks for the compliment, Lowell, it is why I am here in the first place.
I cannot log in to SQLEXPRESS with sysadmin privileges as I can at MSSQLSERVER, so that is the problem.
However, I just managed to get round the problem in ConfigManager by changing the instance properties to LOCALSERVICE account instead of LOCALSYSTEM. Now I can log in with sysadmin powers.
Thanks.
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here's a screenshot to uninstall;
also, i believe if you go to the Surface Area Configuration, you can add yourself(windows login) as an administrator to your instance,a dn then change the sa password:
Lowell
--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible!
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