Installation Error – Updating Permission Setting for File Failed

My client contacted me for a quick assistance in a setup trouble. She informed it’s a brand-new install and failing at the end. She was installing SQL Server 2016 on Windows Server 2016. Let us learn about how to fix Installation Error.

Below was the error message

Updating permission setting for file ‘H:\System Volume Information\WPSettings.dat’ failed. The file permission setting was supposed to be set to ‘D: P(A;OICI;FA;;;BA)(A;OICI;FA;;;SY)(A;OICI;FA;;;CO)(A;OICI;FA;;;S-1-5-80-3880718306-3832830129-1677759213-2598158969-1052248003)’.
Click ‘Retry’ to retry the failed action, or click ‘Cancel’ to cancel this action and continue setup.

WORKAROUND / SOLUTION – Installation Error

The error was having the retry option. I looked into the configuration file ConfigurationFile.ini and found that she was using the H drive for TempDB. The location he specified for TempDB was a root directory of H drive. From the error message it looks like the SQL Server setup may not be able to add required permissions on the root directory.

So, I asked her to create a folder instead and then specify that in TempDB location. We cancelled the setup and she reverted the snapshot to initial state where SQL was not installed and created a folder for TempDB. For other files such as System DB’s, User DB’s and Backup’s she had already created folder.

After creating the folder, the installation was successful. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.

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