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Error: "The request failed or the service did not respond in a timely fashion. Consult the event log or other applicable error logs for details error when starting SQL Server instance"

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This error is commonly caused by a corrupt Master database in SQL Server. You will have to rebuild the database.

  1. Open Windows Explorer and go to the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.ESHA\MSSQL. If you are not running the \ESHA instance of SQL Server, the MSSQL10_50.ESHA may have a different name.
  2. Rename the folder "DATA." You can simply rename it "DATA.old."
  3. Create a new folder in this directory named "DATA."
  4. Open the "Template Data" folder and copy all of the files in this directory.
  5. Paste the copy of these files into the newly created C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.ESHA\MSSQL\DATA folder.
  6. Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager and try to start the SQL Server Service again, it should start now.
  7. Test your application to confirm it now works.
  8. If you continue to have problems, contact ESHA support.
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Comments

  • Avatar
    Pinoy Tech Support

    I can't run the SQL Server Agent while SQL Server and SQL Server Browser is no problem .

    Platform: Windows 2012 R2 Standard

  • Avatar
    Pinoy Tech Support

    SQL 2008 X86 ENU

  • Avatar
    WALEED KHAN

    Brother what if I don't have template data folder in any directory

  • Avatar
    CEO CEO

    I faced this same problem after downloading and installing Microsoft SQL server/studio.

    I had to uninstall the application severally but all to no avail. I followed different recommendations from various sites online, all to no avail. For good 3days, I was uninstalling and installing to the extent during the installation I was told the database engine no longer exist. I went to services to start the servers, some run but some could not. Whenever I tried to connect to my server instance in the sql studio, it didn't connect no matter how I tried

    You know, I faced:
    Could not connect to server instance, database engine not found, Login failed for user, error code 945, error code 2, etc. Each of these was coming up after each installation and deletion of their installed files.

    I had to do a total clean up of all the Microsoft installed files and started the installation setup again.

    When it got to installation features:

    I tried as much as possible to select the database engine, the SDK connectivity is automatically checked, and only few features because I noticed the problem was arising from one of the numerous features but I couldn't tell which.

    As at when I was doing the installation, I initially checked (selected) all the features and that was what was causing the problem. One of the features was having problem but one cannot easily tell which.

    So the best is to select Database engine, and very few others of what you know you need and progress.

    This should solve your problem. I noticed one of the features for R, Python, Java and Polybase are the cause of the problem. But knowing which is the main problem.

    You can decide to test each of them to confirm which of them is causing the problem, that is if you need all of them, otherwise you can just ignore them and proceed with installing the database engine features, data analysis, SDK connectivity and others you think.

    Note: whenever you have any of the challenge I listed at the start of this writeup, please know it's one of the installed features that's causing it.