Hi Jeremy,
I suggest you to change service account with a more privileged account. For example "local system" or any other account that you create.
How to resolve error 1067, unable to start SQL server (sqlexpress) service on local computer
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Jeremy Sandlin
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SQL Server Database Engine
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Erland Sommarskog 124.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator2025-08-05T20:24:32.9433333+00:00 Did you also try to start SQL Server from the SQL Server Configuration Manager? That's the normal place to start SQL Server services.
If that also fails, the next step is to check out the SQL Server errorlog, which would be in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQLnn.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\LOG\ERRRORLOG, assuming a default installation. (nn is a number that depends on the version of SQL Server.)
Pay attention to the date of the file - does it agree with your most recent attempt to start SQL Server? If it does not, the error occurs before SQL Server starts writing to the errorlog. If the date does agree, the errorlog should give further information. Feel free to attach it here. You will have to rename it to ERRORLOG.txt to be able to upload it.
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yunus emre ISIK 261 Reputation points2025-08-06T04:51:29.4166667+00:00 -
Erland Sommarskog 124.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2025-08-06T18:50:16.8866667+00:00 No, don't to this. It may resolve the issue, but in such case it is not the correct resolution. SQL Server should not run under a privileged service account, least of all LocalSystem.
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