I am having some trouble rebuilding the system databases on my SQL Server Express 2005 instance.

While I have had a total system failure, the backups have been good.

I have restored the operating system but obviously there are no SQL system databases present (they were open at the time of the backup). So now I need to rebuild them before I restore the backups.

The setup starts OK when I run the recommended rebuild string:

Start /wait setup.exe /qb INSTANCENAME=<InstanceName>
REINSTALL=SQL_Engine REBUILDDATABASE=1
SAPWD=<NewStrongPassword>

I get prompted to reinstall, and therefore overwrite the system databases. Then, just before the databases are copied to the DATA directory, I see the following status message:

Running action to shutdown instance (Run As Normal User)

RANU instance Shutdown in progress: MSSQL$INSTANCENAME


After 10 seconds I get the following error message:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Setup



The SQL Server service failed to start. For more information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How
to: View SQL Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."



Retry / Cancel



I can only “cancel” the process.


Any ideas why am I getting this? Obviously there are no system databases so the SQL Server service will not start (that’s why I’m rebuilding them).

If this is a Microsoft flaw then it's a pretty major one as the only option seems to be the reinstallation of the entire application.