Cannot Re-Install SharePoint 2003 SP2

[prn64]

My local development instance of SP had become corrupted, and I could not access nor administer any top level areas/sites. Thus, after reading some forum posts elsewhere, I decided to un-install and then re-install SharePoint.

Un-installation was successful, but now when trying to re-install, I continually get the message:

You cannot repair or remove SharePoint Portal Server by using this version of Setup. To repair or remove SharePoint Portal Server or its components, click Start, point to Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs.

So, I've done that but SP no longer shows up in the installed programs list. There does not appear to be any other support application related to SP within the list, either.

I am trying to run setup from the installation files derived from en_office_2003_sps.iso/English. (This is the same ISO I used during the initial setup.)

Any suggestions? Do I need to modify some registry settings or something to that effect?

 

[ouzojd]

I'm only making suggestions, but is there any SPS or WSS service packs left on there?

Also have you rebooted the server since the uninstall?

Last of all I know you have removed sharepoint portal, but did you also remove WSS?

Cheers.

 

[prn64]

Thanks, ouzojd. I should have thought of that, because there were still registry entries for Sharepoint. However, I am now receiving this error while attempting again to uninstall:

SPSADM.EXE

Application has generated an exception that could not be handled. 

Process id=0xbc8 (3016), Thread id=0xea8 (3752)

(memory address issues??)

When that didn't work, I tried running setup, again. Setup is now allowing me to run the repair process, but about half-way through, it generates a similar unhandled exception with slightly different process and thread IDs.

So, my bad for even attempting an un-install. I'm just hoping someone has some suggestions on how to get out of this quagmire...

 

[ouzojd]

It's a pig to uninstall, you have to do it in the order of SPS, then WSS. I suspect this is the problem you are experiencing now.

Try this, never done it myself but something similar happened to me when I first started playing with Sharepoint (I just the wiped everything including the OS and started again hopefully you wont have to)

However you might like to try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/?ID=827755

 

[prn64]

Thanks again, ouzojd. I am back at it after some other fire drill interruptions. The MS support article you posted looked promising, but it bombs out on step 5:

5. Type the following line, where CDimage is the path of the shared folder that contains the SharePoint Portal Server CD files, and then press ENTER:
msiexec /qb /i <CDimage>\WSS\Sts.msi /L*v <full path>\STS_Install.log LAUNCHEDFROMSETUPSTS=1

STS_Install.log exists nowhere on my machine. I have run a thorough search of my entire system with no luck. I am certain that I did not (knowingly) remove the file.

I tried moving on to step 7 (web.config backup), but I then get a "system cannot find the file specified" error message.

I may have an appointment with fdisk in the near future, but I'd really prefer not to have to re-install and re-configure my entire system (that would take days...).

Thanks, again.

 

[prn64]

Ah, success. This was easier than I thought it would be, though it took some effort to locate the solution. I simply had to re-install WSS (rather than trying to run the global setup.exe), and then I was able to uninstall all three components in the correct order (SharePoint Portal Server, Windows SharePoint Services, and MSDE). From there, I successfully re-installed SPS and WSS.

This forum thread tipped me off:

http://www.sharepointu.com/forums/PROBLEN_UN_INSTALLING_SHAREPOINT!!!_PLEASE_HELP!!!/m_11000/tm.htm

 

[ouzojd]

With the ms article, you could of probably pointed it at the cd itself but as long as she's up and running, that's all that matters.

 

[prn64]

I actually sort of tried that, but when I deleted the path references to the log files (which don't appear to be located on the CD for perhaps obvious reasons), the initial installer would spawn, but not the complete install wizard.

Now that I've re-installed both SPS and WSS, IIS seems to be hosed. When I try to navigate to the top-level site I created, I get the default IIS "under construction" page. If this forum app would allow it, I would post a screen shot. However, other than re-installing Sharepoint, no recent changes have been made to my IIS configs. There is the default Web site, a Visual Studio project site and the Sharepoint admin site (on TCP port 24205). There is no listing, though, for the top-level site I created (which I believe was also the case before the re-install). Even after assiging each of those sites a unique port (other than 80), I still get the construction page.

At any rate, I hope that this thread will help out other newbs who make the same mistakes I have made.