Error message when you install SQL Server 2005: “There was an unexpected failure during the setup wizard” - Error 1603.
Today I ran into some serious trouble at a customer . I had to install SQL server 2005 for a System Center Essentials installation.Every time I installed the SQL server it just would quit with a funny error : “There was an unexpected failure during the setup wizard”. What the hell ?
Doing some investigation , it seems to be a know bug when your sources aren't coming from the original CD's.If you are downloading them from the MVLS site , you will run into this issue one day .
This problem occurs because the folders that contain the files that are required during the installation of SQL Server 2005 do not have a correct layout.
This problem is most likely to occur if you start the SQL Server 2005 installation from a folder on a network share or on a hard disk when the folder was copied from the SQL Server 2005 installation CDs.
Solution:To work around this problem, set the folders in the correct layout for the SQL Server 2005 installation. The SQL Server 2005 installation uses the following two folders:
These two folders must be under the same level of a folder or the root folder of a drive. The names of these folders must be exactly Servers and Tools. The Servers folder contains all the files that are required to install major SQL Server 2005 components, such as database engine. The Tools folder contains tools components and Books Online for SQL Server 2005.Then try installing sql from the path\servers\setup.exe
Hope it helps ,
Kenny Buntinx