SQL Install Setup disappear when installing SQL Server

We might come across a situation where SQL installation setup will disappear during the installation process. This might be because of many reasons, one such I faced is incomplete uninstall of prevision SQL Server on the machine.  

I encountered an error in the middle of the fresh installation of SQL Server 2012 version, which was asking to reboot the machine. Later continued till the end and error out without installing the SQL Database engine. It is always a good practice to clean up previous SQL files before installing the new one and I did it. But during the next installation started facing the issue. After the acceptance of License and agreement, Setup was disappearing without any error message. I checked the installation logs in Bootstrap folder and Temp folder. couldn't find any proper information about the strange behavior of SQL server. Later I found the below solution in google. 

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click on start->run and type %temp% and press enter (basically, go to the temp folder)
2. Here, look for SQLSetup.log and SQLSetup_1.log. Open the SQLSetup_1.log file. In there, check for the following messages:04/16/2012 17:16:47.950 Error: Failed to launch process
   04/16/2012 17:16:47.952 Error: Failed to launch local setup100.exe: 0x80070003

Typically, you get this error only in SQL 2008, SQL 2008 R2, SQL 2012 and SQL 2014. The steps are slightly different for all 4, and I’ve tried to outline them here.

Warning: These steps involve modification of the windows registry, a highly sensitive component of the Operating System. Before proceeding, please ensure you take a complete backup of the registry.

SQL Server 2008

1. Save the following in a text file, change the extension to .reg, double-click on the file, and on the prompt that appears, select yes to populate the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server100Bootstrap]
“BootstrapDir”=”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\100\\Setup Bootstrap\\”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Bootstrap\Setup]
“PatchLevel”=”10.0.1600.22”

2. Next, copy the following files and folders from the media to the specified destinations:

File/Folder in media	Destination
X64/X86 (depending on what architecture you want to install)	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Release
Setup.exe	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Release
Setup.rll	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Release\Resources\1033

Next, re-run the setup, and it should proceed beyond the point of error this time.

SQL Server 2008 R2

1. Save the following in a text file, change the extension to .reg, double-click on the file, and on the prompt that appears, select yes to populate the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Bootstrap]
“BootstrapDir”=”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\100\\Setup Bootstrap\\”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Bootstrap\Setup]
“PatchLevel”=”10.50.1600.00”

2. Next, copy the following files and folders from the media to the specified destinations:

File/Folder in media	Destination
X64/X86 folder (depending on what architecture you want to install)	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2
Setup.exe	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2
Resources folder	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2

Next, re-run the setup, and it should proceed beyond the point of error this time.

SQL Server 2012

1. Save the following in a text file, change the extension to .reg, double-click on the file, and on the prompt that appears, select yes to populate the registry:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Bootstrap]
“BootstrapDir”=”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\110\\Setup Bootstrap\\”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Bootstrap\Setup]
“PatchLevel”=”11.00.2100.60”

2. Next, copy the following files and folders from the media to the specified destinations:

File/Folder in media	Destination
X64/X86 folder (depending on what architecture you want to install)	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2012
Setup.exe	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2012
Resources folder	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2012

Next, re-run the setup, and it should proceed beyond the point of error this time.

SQL Server 2014

1. Save the following in a text file, change the extension to .reg, double-click on the file, and on the prompt that appears, select yes to populate the registry:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Bootstrap]
“BootstrapDir”=”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\120\\Setup Bootstrap\\”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server120BootstrapSetup]
“PatchLevel”=”12.00.2000.80”

2. Next, copy the following files and folders from the media to the specified destinations:

File/Folder in media	Destination
X64/X86 folder (depending on what architecture you want to install)	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2014
Setup.exe	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2014
Resources folder	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2014

Next, re-run the setup, and it should proceed beyond the point of error this time.