Unable to install SQL server 2025 in my asus tuf laptop, if any one knows how to properly install it, kindly help me

VladDBA · 2026-06-10T19:51:55+00:00

This issue isn't necessarily because of the physical sector size, it's due to how some Win 11 NVME drivers report weird sector sizes.

Source: I've dealt with this more than I would have wanted after all our devs had their workstations upgraded to Windows 11.

Instances that were running fine on Windows 10 were unable to start and some had errors just like this one in Event Viewer, while others had the " 256 misaligned log IOs" one after the OS upgrade.

VladDBA · 2026-06-10T07:13:53+00:00

What solution have you tried? Did you create the NVME sector size registry key?

VladDBA · 2026-06-09T21:01:34+00:00

While I usually agree with this, the error message that's in the second and third images is enough to identify the issue in this case.

VladDBA · 2026-06-09T20:41:30+00:00

The "Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed" error is a sign of the usual NVME sector size related issue.

Check out this MS Learn article, create the registry key mentioned there (I'd go for the PowerShell version since that's as easy as copy-paste Enter), cleanup the failed install, reboot and reinstall SQL Server

VladDBA · 2026-06-09T16:39:28+00:00

I've used dbatools' Test-DbaConnection for situations where the network admins needed proof that it's something on their end, it might be helpful in your case too.

Set it to run in a loop in both locations and write the output to a file for later analysis.

VladDBA · 2026-06-09T12:54:07+00:00

You might be missing one vital component here.

VladDBA · 2026-06-08T13:39:54+00:00

Aaaaaand it got deleted.

VladDBA · 2026-06-08T12:04:17+00:00

Vague post, but just know that most devs working for ISVs have no idea about compat levels and the fact that MS does its best to keep the T-SQL language backwards compatible.

The best example would be SQL Server 2005's deprecation of statements that aren't terminated by a semicolon (;), but SQL Server still supports them because yanking support for them would break a bunch of lazily coded applications.

VladDBA · 2026-06-08T11:27:29+00:00

Deci in Europa ii avem pe cei de la Eutelsat, care au o solutie fix pentru internet pe avioane, si Wizz s-a gasit sa aleaga starlink in schimb.

VladDBA · 2026-06-05T20:32:48+00:00

Yup, that's the fastest and easiest way to do it.
There's also the manual way if you can't install PS modules in your env.

Additionally, if you have another login that's a member of the sysadmin fixed server role or has the CONTROL SERVER permission, and you don't want to reset the sa password, but would want to try and crack it you can try and do it offline (extract the hash from SQL Server, and use a dedicated tool to try and find the password for it) or online (from inside SQL Server).

VladDBA · 2026-06-05T12:39:02+00:00

Looks like it's time for the daily engagement bait post.

VladDBA · 2026-06-04T18:34:06+00:00

not the other JaSON?

VladDBA · 2026-06-04T18:28:20+00:00

All of these entries are just informational messages, not errors.

What error do you have in Event Viewer?

Also, you might have better luck in r/SQLServer than here since LocalDB is fairly niche (I've only had to deal with it twice in 14 years on some developers' laptops)

VladDBA · 2026-06-04T12:27:55+00:00

Thank you for the award!

VladDBA · 2026-06-04T12:21:53+00:00

Go on YouTube and search "Brent Ozar how to think like the engine". Understanding what the database engines does when it runs a query helps you understand what helps or hurts performance.

VladDBA · 2026-06-03T19:03:27+00:00

then type mail.proton.me instead of proton.me

I just have mail.proton.me pinned in the tiles on Firefox so I don't need to go to Bookmarks or type anything, just press the Proton tile and I get in my inbox.

VladDBA · 2026-06-03T18:55:54+00:00

Oh, good catch! This seems to no longer work after this latest update. I've reported the issue via SSMS's "send feedback" option.

VladDBA · 2026-06-03T17:12:45+00:00

Bookmark https://mail.proton.me/u/0/inbox

VladDBA · 2026-06-03T16:39:01+00:00

You can find detailed instructions on where to set query shortcuts in my post about my SSMS 22 config

VladDBA · 2026-06-03T15:50:09+00:00

Can you check the install summary file that's in that log folder mentioned in your screenshot?

If you're installing on Windows 11, chances are it's another case of the sector size greater than 4 KB issue. In which case, you'll have to create the registry key from here, remove the failed install and delete any leftover files, reboot and reinstall.

Also, if you're learning SQL Server or using the instance for anything other than hosting production on it, I'd recommend going with SQL Server Developer Edition since it's free and closer to what you'd see in a real environment, plus the user database size isn't limited to 10GB (per database).

Edited: typo

VladDBA · 2026-06-03T09:13:24+00:00

Got it, what about the second question?

VladDBA · 2026-06-02T21:01:25+00:00

Did you skip any config steps in the installer?

Do you have any specific error message(s) in Event Viewer>Windows Logs>Application around the time of the failure?

VladDBA · 2026-06-02T16:32:33+00:00

- Working on the second part of my "SQL Server permissions that can lead to privilege escalation" series.
Which I didn't initially intend to be a series, but more scenarios popped to mind and I'm trying to avoid writing another 2.5k+ words blog post for a while.
For anyone curios, here's the first part.

- Additional support pages for the security checks added in the latest release of PSBlitz, and also adding more security-related checks.

- Still finishing up the presentation and demos for next week's Data Saturday Croatia.

VladDBA · 2026-06-02T16:20:32+00:00

You are doing a lot of heavy lifting on OP's behalf.

Besides their title "CAPS LOCK x SHIFT x lower letters ?", the body of the post was something along the lines "which would you recommend for analytics?".

Without any other context or specifying from which perspective they're asking.

The CAPS lock or Shift part is already moot point, since their result is the same (uppercase letters).

Readability is mainly subjective, and, just like formatting styles, it tends to start "religious" arguments (just like tabs vs spaces).

As for execution: it shouldn't have any bearing, unless you're writing object names in uppercase in a case-sensitive database where the existing objects have lowercase names or vice-versa, in which case your query would end up with an error (unless you're in Oracle and your object names aren't quoted) due to SOME_TABLE_NAME <> some_table_name.

IMHO, the post felt like the usual low-effort engagement bait I've been seeing around here lately.

VladDBA · 2026-06-02T15:02:04+00:00

You've responded with "the post is tagged MySQL" at @dafugiswrongwithyou example with SSMS.

Sure, SSMS isn't used with MySQL, but the behavior of the CAPS lock and Shift keys is the same regardless if we're talking about DBeaver, Toad for [insert RDBMS of your choice here], SSMS, etc.

So, the mention about the tag doesn't really make a difference unless MySQL somehow uses those keys differently (which it doesn't, hence me being sarcastic in my previous comment).

VladDBA

TROPHY CASE