No services listed when SQL Server Express 2008 R2 Installed on local computer

Question

I cannot get my local computer to run SQL Server. I looked in the SQL Server configuration manager and noticed that there are no SQL Server Services listed. That can't be right. I also noticed that There are two Managers listed in the SysWOW64 folder (I'm running Win7): SQLServerManager10.msc and SQLServerManager.msc. Neither show any services at all. When trying to connect via SSMSE, I get the standard:

    A network related or instance specific error occurred while establishing a 
connection to SQL server...

I haven't installed a prior version, but did try to uninstall and reinstall using the Web platform installer from Microsoft. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Answer 1

I had the same problem and as Brian said, I was missing SQL Server Express. So I download SQL Server 2008 R2 Express and I installed it. now everything works fine.

Note that I thought I already installed it when I installed SQL Management Studio R2. Now, be aware that when installing SQL Management Studio R2, you are not installing SQL Server and you won't get any SQL Server Services in your Sql Server Configuration Manager -> SQL Server Services. You also need to download and install SQL Server Express.