SBS2003 ISA2004 Installation Fails with MSDE Error 0x643

Well, I have been having great fun with ISA 2004 on SBS the past week.    Another issue that came up on a site is the SBS ISA2004 setup kept on installing, rolling back the install, and then rebooting the server without prompting.   Whilst I never did find out why the server autorebooted I did get the following information together on why the installation was failing.

Basically, in the c:windowstempisawrap*.* log files, I found the following error:

Deleting previous MSDE installation directory <C:Program Filesmicrosoft sql serverMSSQL$MSFW>
Setup failed. Error returned: 0x643
MSDE Installation failed, hr=80070643
Performing rollback (uninstall) of firewall

The issue, as you can see, is that the ISA 2004 MSDE Database instance is failing.   Unfortunately the Event logs do not show you this.   So, here is the way we got the system to install:

There was a hidden, system directory on the root of the C: drive named config.msi. Remove this directory. If this directory is present, it can/will cause MSI installations to fail. This directory is created when an MSI package fails to install and contains some rollback and recover information about the failure.

Only if that does not resolve the issue, read on….

Remove the following registry keys: (Take note of the GUID from the logs)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL ServerComponent SetInstanceComponentSet2 value was {E09B48B5-E141-427A-AB0C-D3605127224A} – this is the GUID that MSFW was referring to in the MSDE instance logs.

Removed the following registry key – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server Setup.{689404D2-1C94-44B3-9203-BEC5594FDA7A}

Thanks to John Bay in PSS!   I would never have figured this by myself 🙂

  3 Replies to “SBS2003 ISA2004 Installation Fails with MSDE Error 0x643”

  1. Ryan
    September 19, 2006 at 3:59 pm

    I tried this, couldn’t find Removed the following registry key – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server Setup.{689404D2-1C94-44B3-9203-BEC5594FDA7A} tried both steps, same result…. Any other ideas??? PLEASE help.

    ryanp@sf-it.com

  2. Ahmed Waqas Abid
    October 27, 2006 at 11:06 am

    Please refer to %windir%temp for *MSDE_*.log for Error . There is a line with “Unable to delete Previous installation folder ‘c:program filesMicrosoft sql ServerMSSQL$MSFW’…”

    You have to manually create this folder i.e. (Microsoft sql ServerMSSQL$MSFW) before starting setup. I also stuck on this error but after creating this folder i successfully completed the installation.

    Hope this will resolve you problem.

  3. VriendP
    May 4, 2010 at 4:47 am

    If you are looking for a way to restore functionality on a ISA Server that exceeded it’s trial period and you are having issues with the upgrade to a full version (which basically sucks, you get punished for buying a license is how I see it), try setting the system time back and disabling time synchronization.

    It will restore functionality so you can at least read this message.

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