Paulo Morgado

.NET Development & Architecture

This Blog

Syndication

Search

Tags

News

Unit Test Today! Get Typemock Isolator!

Projects

Books

 

Visitors

Visitor Locations

Community

Email Notifications

Archives

Profile

Disclaimer

The opinions and viewpoints expressed in this site are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Microsoft, my employer or any community that I belong to. Any code or opinions are offered as is. Products or services mentioned are purchased by me, made available to me by my employer or the manufacturer/vendor which doesn't influence my opinion in any way.

How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances

After installing Visual Studio 2010 I, inadvertently ended up with SQL Server 2008 Express having already installed SQL Server 2008 Developer. Only when I was going to upgrade to SQL Server 2008R2 I found out I had two instances installed.

I looked everywhere for a place to remove the SQLEXPRESS instance but couldn’t find it.

Only when I decided to uninstall the entire SQL Server suite and start over I found how to do it.

On Windows 7, go to Programs and Features and choose Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) (or whatever your version of SQL Server you want to add or remove and instance from).

Choose Remove (or Add, if you want to add a new instance).

Follow the steps and choose which instance you want to remove.

Select the features of that instance you want to remove (select all to remove the instance).
Note: Don’t remove shared features if you don’t want to remove any other instances.

It’s probably something I should have known, but I didn’t and it wasn’t easy to find.

Published Fri, Jul 2 2010 1:18 by Paulo Morgado

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, October 04, 2010 5:39 PM

thanks man.

Arash

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, December 20, 2010 8:23 AM

I was on step2 and didn't want to click on "remove" button until I see your screen captures.

Thanks,

Sanvalerius

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, December 20, 2010 8:45 AM

I was at the point of uninstalling SQL Server and re-installing it. So, "Remove" didn't scare me that much at that point. :)

Always glad to help.

Paulo Morgado

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Wednesday, January 26, 2011 1:29 PM

Thank you, Saved me from Reinstalling

Daniel

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Sunday, February 06, 2011 1:47 AM

Thank you, I've Google the answer and you answer my question!

Clement Chen

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Friday, February 11, 2011 9:52 AM

Nice tip - many thanks.

Ian Blackburn

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Friday, February 11, 2011 12:58 PM

Thank you very much. saved me a couple more hours :)

mosh

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, April 11, 2011 5:11 PM

The only actual simply worded guide I could find too

GB

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Wednesday, May 04, 2011 9:41 AM

Thank you for having made this page. It really save me lots of time and spared me lots of troubles.

Pat

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Friday, May 13, 2011 1:09 AM

Thanks bro saved a lot o my time :)this was the only proper one i could find too cuz it's a scary thing to press remove haha

Eshanka

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Friday, June 10, 2011 1:13 PM

Yeah! Exactly what I was looking for!

Damn, I should have asked Google earlier..

Thanks heaps!

HappyMan

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Thursday, August 04, 2011 4:36 AM

Great!

Aléx

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, September 12, 2011 4:45 PM

Wow...they really hid that one.  Thanks very much.

You Saved Me

# Very usefull@ Wednesday, September 14, 2011 4:00 AM

Thanks.

Cro

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Tuesday, October 11, 2011 9:09 AM

First hit on google.

Thanks you've saved me a lot of work! :-D

Rob

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Friday, October 14, 2011 7:44 AM

Would never of found that own my own.

Thanks for your help.

Steve C

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, October 31, 2011 7:48 AM

when ever i try to uninstall or follow your procedure, in removal window there is no insatance selcetion it gives all the options or step acept "Select Instance" please help.

Daman

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Tuesday, November 01, 2011 9:23 PM

Is there an instance installed or just the shared components.

Paulo Morgado

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Thursday, November 10, 2011 8:21 PM

Not so great. Read the official documentation.

How to uninstall an instance of SQL Server 2008

support.microsoft.com/.../955499

Larry

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Sunday, November 13, 2011 8:36 PM

Thanks for the info.

My intention was not to replace the official documnentation nor I reccomend that.

There are also MSDN articles on this subject.

By the way, KB articles are not product documentation. They are for solving problems which, sometimes, are lack of documentation.

I still thnik that SQL Server documentations is great in general, but the fact is that, when I needed, I couldn't find it. Nor did the hundreds of users that still come to my blog posts on this subject.

By the way, how and why did you find this post?

Once again, thanks for th info.

Paulo Morgado

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Tuesday, November 15, 2011 10:12 AM

Thanks guys, really helped me your post

esteban

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Wednesday, December 07, 2011 11:56 PM

I've isntalled SQL Express 2008 Management Studio.  I've went step by step on how to install it.  Everything went well.  however, when I try to loggin, I can't.  

Server Type: Database Engine

Server Name: (local)\Sqlexpress

Authentication : Windows Authentication

User Name: Computer name

Pasword:

When I try to login I get an error message:

Cannot conect to (local)\Sqlexpress server

Additional Information:

A netowrk-related or instance-Specific error occured while establishing a connection to SQL Server.  The Server was not found or was not accessible.  Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL server is configured to allow remote connections.( Provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (Microsoft SQL Server)

I've looked in SQL Server Configuration Manager and here are no instances under SQL Server Services.  Could this be the problem.

If so, how do I fix this?  any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Franco

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, December 12, 2011 5:53 AM

Franco,

SQL Server Management Studio is a client tool to manage/query servers/datbases. It doesn not inclued the services.

You need to install SQL Server Express to install the services.

Paulo Morgado

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Wednesday, December 28, 2011 5:16 PM

If I remove the instance will I loose database?

nana

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Thursday, December 29, 2011 4:58 AM

I don't recall if the uninstaller ask if the files should be preserved.

Just to be on the safe side, if you want to keep any database, backp it up or detach it before removing the instance.

Paulo Morgado

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Tuesday, January 10, 2012 6:14 PM

you save my time thanks man,

Jaffar Hussain

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Monday, January 16, 2012 7:56 AM

Awesome.... Works well and saved time...

Thanks, Tim

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Friday, January 20, 2012 1:47 PM

do you know how to change instance id

tutu

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Saturday, January 21, 2012 3:18 PM

Thanks this saved some time :)

Many websites only works with server 2008 so better to go with that one.

Tomas

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Sunday, January 22, 2012 2:43 PM

@tutu

See if any of these help: social.msdn.microsoft.com/.../sqlserver(5bc30920-5d3c-4a4e-8672-ff97b0e9252f)+site:microsoft.com&rn=SQL+Server+Setup+%26+Upgrade+Forum

Paulo Morgado

# re: How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances@ Thursday, March 29, 2012 1:56 PM

Thanks this helped me out!

Ben

Leave a Comment

(required) 
(required) 
(optional)
(required) 
If you can't read this number refresh your screen
Enter the numbers above: