can't uninstall WSUS - Windows internal database problems..

[2muchreality]

I am having WSUS 3.0 installed and it is working fine but due to some hardware issues I had to uninstall it. After that when I am trying to reinstall it then it will simply fail with the below error message:

"An Instance with the same name is already installed on this computer. To proceed with the SQL Server setup, procide a unique instance name"

Error log is as follows:

2007-08-13 10:00:27 Success MWUSSetup Validating pre-requisites...
2007-08-13 10:00:30 Success MWUSSetup ReportViewer is not installed on this machine
2007-08-13 10:00:30 Success MWUSSetup ReportViewer is not installed on this machine
2007-08-13 10:00:33 Success MWUSSetup Initializing installation details
2007-08-13 10:00:33 Success MWUSSetup Installing ASP.Net
2007-08-13 10:00:56 Success MWUSSetup ASP.Net is installed successfully
2007-08-13 10:00:56 Success MWUSSetup Installing WSUS...
2007-08-13 10:00:58 Success CustomActions.Dll The system language ENA is not supported. Using English resources...
2007-08-13 10:00:58 Success CustomActions.Dll Successfully set propery of WSUS admin groups' full names
2007-08-13 10:01:03 Success CustomActions.Dll .Net framework path:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
2007-08-13 10:01:04 Success CustomActions.Dll Creating user group: WSUS
Reporters with Description: WSUS Administrators who can only run reports on the Windows Server Update Services server.
2007-08-13 10:01:04 Success CustomActions.Dll Creating WSUS Reporters user group
2007-08-13 10:01:04 Success CustomActions.Dll WSUS Reporters user group already exists
2007-08-13 10:01:04 Success CustomActions.Dll Successfully created WSUS
Reporters user group
2007-08-13 10:01:04 Success CustomActions.Dll Creating user group: WSUS
Administrators with Description: WSUS Administrators can administer the
Windows Server Update Services server.

Can anyone please help me out? thanks

[Zachary]

It sounds to me that your Windows Internal Database was corrupted because of the hardware issue. So try to do the following below and then run WSUS setup again:

1. First of all make a copy of registry (by exporting) under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server, if by chance the following cant work out, you can restore (by importing) your registry.
2. After that you need to click on the Start menu, choose Run and type regedit
3. Now you have to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Instance Names\SQL
4. After that you have to remove MICROSOFT##SSEE from the REG_MULTI_SZ value named
5. And then simply go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server and then delete the subhive named MICROSOFT##SSEE

[2muchreality]

Thanks for the suggestions but when I tried your method that it didnt work for me and I got the same error message again.

[Techguru01]

Did you try to uninstall the Windows Internal Database, because normally the error happens when you are trying to install Windows Internal Database, but the original install might get corrupted because of the hardware issue. The following link will show you how to uninstall WSUS 3.0 does not uninstall the database instance -
http://technet2.microsoft.com/window....mspx?mfr=true

[karrma]

Even I was facing the same issue but I have fixed it now. You need to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft and then rename the Microsoft SQL Server to Microsoft SQL Server_ and then go to the folder %ProgramFiles% and rename the Microsoft SQL Server to Microsoft SQL Server_ and after this WSUS will install without any problems.