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I tried installing a SQL Server 2019 Express Instance with default settings in a Windows sandbox. After installing the files and services the setup fails with error 0x851A0019 - Could not find the Database Engine startup handle.

In the ERRORLOG I see a few additional file not found errors for a drive D which does not exist in the sandbox.

2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      Error: 17204, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      FCB::Open failed: Could not open file d:\dbs\sh\s19s\0924_133725\cmd\2\obj\x64retail\sql\mkmastr\databases\mkmastr.proj\MSDBData.mdf for file number 1.  OS error: 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).
2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      Error: 5120, Severity: 16, State: 101.
2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      Unable to open the physical file "d:\dbs\sh\s19s\0924_133725\cmd\2\obj\x64retail\sql\mkmastr\databases\mkmastr.proj\MSDBData.mdf". Operating system error 3: "3(The system cannot find the path specified.)".
2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      Error: 17207, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      FileMgr::StartLogFiles: Operating system error 2(The system cannot find the file specified.) occurred while creating or opening file 'd:\dbs\sh\s19s\0924_133725\cmd\2\obj\x64retail\sql\mkmastr\databases\mkmastr.proj\MSDBLog.ldf'. Diagnose and correct the operating system error, and retry the operation.
2021-09-15 16:50:36.70 spid9s      File activation failure. The physical file name "d:\dbs\sh\s19s\0924_133725\cmd\2\obj\x64retail\sql\mkmastr\databases\mkmastr.proj\MSDBLog.ldf" may be incorrect.

Is this expected behavior in a Windows sandbox or is there a way to make this work?

tecmk
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    just encountered this too using custom installation. went with mostly defaults, but didn't notice anything that said d:\, but yeah, I have errors in event viewer trying to access something on d: (same file you list) even though there is no d: drive, and the service can't start with the invalid paths. trying an uninstall but not sure how I'll correct this. someone somewhere else had to use command line to get into sql server and then use tsql to change the paths manually. – Dave Cousineau Sep 16 '21 at 06:47
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    after uninstalling/reinstalling it worked the second time. I don't know if anything I did helped. may have been any of: the first time I went back through the wizard to change the install options, the second time I didn't; there was a computer restart in between the two attempts; or, I may have run the install file from a different folder than the downloads folder (which has user permissions which can cause problems) (but I can't remember for sure if I did that for that file; I did do it for SSMS). (ssms was also already installed the second time I tried.) – Dave Cousineau Sep 17 '21 at 15:58
  • For me uninstall/reinstall of sql server did not work the second time (also tried to run the setup from a c:\temp folder). I also tried to install SSMS beforehand but that also did not change anything. Same with a computer restart. – tecmk Sep 20 '21 at 14:55
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    are you installing the Java/Python/R stuff? the time it broke for me, I had chosen those, and went most of the way through the wizard with them on, but then decided to turn them off in the middle, went back to the beginning of the wizard, unselected them, and then went forward through the wizard again. the second time, I unchecked them from the start. – Dave Cousineau Sep 20 '21 at 16:26
  • no, I have been using the Basic package which includes only the Database Engine Service, SQL Server Replication and SQL Client Connectivity SDK. I also just tried to install it using the full installation package just in case this one installs some other prereqs but I get the same error as before. Does it work for you now consistently? – tecmk Sep 21 '21 at 08:35
  • I've only made the two attempts, first with the problem, and the second time without. I would try a custom install, and deselect the Java/Python/R stuff. I would think the "basic" option would have the same defaults as the custom install, but not sure. (there are some other settings I changed, like Recommended memory usage rather than Default, but I wouldn't expect that to be related.) – Dave Cousineau Sep 21 '21 at 15:51

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