MS SQL Server 2005 Express rebuild master DB problem

Question

There has been a power loss on our server and i cannot start the SQL service because the master DB is corrupted (as the log states).

I found many articles recommending running the setup.exe with optional parameters: This is what I did:

1. I've downloaded SQLEXPR32.EXE from MS page and ran it

The first problem was, that it extracted all the setup files and started the default installation procedure. (which was unuseful for me as I need those params). If I canceled it, all the extracted files disappeared. That's why I decided to copy the extracted files somewhere and than cancel the default installation.

1. Now I'm trying to run the setup.exe from the extraction:

   setup.exe /qb INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER REINSTALL=SQL_Engine REBUILDDATABASE=1 SAPWD=xxxxx

it asks me if I want to rewrite the system db, which is what I need, but then while installing I get this error:

*An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'SqlRun_SQL.msi'*

Then it tries to install something and it states: cannot install because the same instance name already exists. But I don't want to install a new instance ..

Any idea how to solve this?

Answer 1

WEll.. I did it this way: I've installed a new SQL instance on that machine and I've rewritten the old corrupted master.mdf from the old SQL instance with the new fresh one. That allowed me to start the server. Then I attached myDatabase.mdf .. The disadvantage is that I have master.dbf 'from factory / default'