Jess,
It sounds like the Uninstall didn't clean up the entire registry (which it looks like you suspect). The installation sees these ghost entries and attempts to get the original configuration from the other install.

I wouldn't go so far as to re-install Windows if you are looking to cleanup the registry. Just run Regedit (not Regedt32) and do a search on the old directory name. Since SQL Server is not installed anymore, delete every key you find with that value.

If you re-install Windows and treat it as an upgrade, it won't change the dead SQL entries and if you treat it as a new install, you'll have to re-install evrything. Not a very appealing solution.

HTH.

>I uninstalled SQL 7 desktop edition in my computer but then, when I am trying to re-install it, it now gives an error:
>

>"Setup can not find Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 installation at the location specified by HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Setup\SQLPath.  Correct the problem and restart setup."
>

>What is this all about? I already copied the whole Disk 1 to my PC drive in order to ensure that it has nothing to do with network path, but to no avail. The funny thing is, when I tried using other computers, it works well.
>
>Do I need to format my disk and re-install WIN9x in order to clean up whatever Windows registry left related to SQL Server when I uninstalled it?