Hi folks!

As a developer, I've installed various instances of SQL Sever (2000, 2005, 2008, R2) from all the ways back to 2003 and I've never had an install fail on me....until yesterday.

I was installing SQL Server 2008 R2 onto a Windows Server 2008 R2 hosted virtual server and the install finished, but failed on every component. To make matters worse, it was in a state in which I could not uninstall it either, even using command line options! I dug around a bit, but didn't get very far with it. The error is enigmatic and Google didn't turn up much hope.

So today, I am going to try again after having the VM image wiped overnight. My question is how can I guard against the same failure today? I don't mind if it fails, but then I know it may be something wrong with the base image I'm getting from the hosting company. I really don't feel like paying another $20 to wipe the VM and I have no idea why it failed. Is it enough for me to backup the registry so that I can restore it in case it fails? What about the installation files? Do I need to have a tool to clean that out, too?

Sorry, I'm no sys admin so no real experience with backup/restore aside from System Restore! So any advice would be appreciated!