SQL SERVER – Installation Error – File Format is Not Valid

The reason I love consulting is because I get to see many flavors of the problems. This new avatar for me is pushing the limits to how I keep learning technologies. My recent interaction with the client has shown one more error and another angle to look at a problem. Though some of these errors are new, it is a great way to understand how SQL Server actually works. In this blog post we will see Installation Error.

When setup comes to license agreement step, it says “File format is not valid”.

Here is the text.

TITLE: SQL Server Setup failure.
——————————
SQL Server Setup has encountered the following error:
File format is not valid..
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BUTTONS:
OK
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Based on MSDN, I looked into the detailed logs and found below

Exception type: System.ArgumentException
Message:
File format is not valid.
Data:
DisableWatson = true
Stack:
at System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox.StreamIn(Stream data, Int32 flags)
at System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox.LoadFile(Stream data, RichTextBoxStreamType fileType)
at System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox.LoadFile(String path, RichTextBoxStreamType fileType)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.InstallWizard.EULAPidView.UpdateLicenseText(String filepath)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.InstallWizard.EULAPidController.UpdateView()
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.InstallWizard.EULAPidController.view_VisibleChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnParentVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

I don’t know much of .net but looking at stack, it looks like it’s trying to load the file in setup screen. I think it’s picking the licensing details files which is on the media. My search shows that this might be due to corrupted ISO file.

Here is another blog on the same topic. SQL SERVER – 2012 RC0: Fix Setup Error: File format is not valid

But in this case, the size of this ISO was around 2 GB.  The download site indicates the ISO should be around 4 GB.  We ran sigcheck.exe from page https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897441 and generated SHA1 hash. The hash was different for the ISO and the mounted image.  So we downloaded ISO once again, verified SHA1 hash and used different tools to mount directly on Virtual CD.

Here is another way to get SHA1 signature (Availability and description of the File Checksum Integrity Verifier utility)

Have you encountered the same issue? What was the solution which worked for you?

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)