I've recently rebuilt my computer to an Athlon 64 3000 on an Abit AV8 socket 939 motherboard with the Via K8T800Pro chipset. I have 1 GB 400 Mhz DDR ram, 120 GB Maxtor Drive. I reinstalled Windows 2000 Pro Service Pack 4.

I tried to reinstall SQL Server Evaluation version using the original
download which I saved from about 2 years ago. The package gave the message that it unpacked OK, but when I ran autorun.exe it failed to run. Repeated this a couple of times, no joy.

I had MSDE installed before I upgraded my computer so I tried installing that thinking it might either install some components which are required or somehow jolt something to make it work. It made no difference.

I wondered if there was a "shelf life" on the Evaluation version so
downloaded the latest version from Microsoft. The file was the same size and seemed to unpack OK but on running autorun.exe gave the same problem. Interestingly, it seemed not to create as many subdirectories in the SQLEVAL folder, just the "Books" subdirectory, not the Books, DevTools, html, intall, MSEQ, olap and x86 directories I had with the original installation file.

I've dug around on the internet and found a few references to this, but no solutions. Can anyone point me to any resolution of the problem please?

Thanks

Pavesa

Finally solved it. It was some kind of incompatibility between my PC setup and the SQLEval.exe package. Eventually ran the SQLEval on another PC to create the SQLEVal folder with the installation software and then copied it over the network to the PC where I wanted it installing. Ran autorun.exe and it installed fine.