I started out with SQL Server 6.5. That installed fine. In moving from SQL Server 2005 to 2008, it took MS Support a month (and about 16 hours on the phone) to figure out how to get it going on my machine. A few years later, going from 2008 to 2012 (Developer Edition) only took 3 weeks for the support case to get resolved.

So here we are again, with SQL Server 2017 Developer on a Windows 10 laptop.

A possible contributor: I used Laplink’s PC Mover to migrate most everything, including the 2012 Developer Edition (which won’t start, and won’t uninstall).

I’m getting “Failed to retrieve data for this request” for both the 2012 uninstall and the 2017 install.

Clicking the Exception help link in the log file brings me to the Microsoft home page, which is, er, not helpful…

Does anyone know how to get past all of this? It seems designed to bring about support-case income.

Thanks in advance! Drew