Thank you for responding. That did not work. I received the error:

Incorrect command parameters

I typed in the run:
e:\sqlmsde\setup.exe e:\sqlmsde\setup\sqlrun01.msi

Neil

>>HI,
>>I was installing vfp8 and got up the last part. I pressed the link to "Install Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE)" and received the following error:
>>
>>The instance name specified is invalid
>>
>>Does anyone know what is going on?
>
>I ran into a similar problem trying to install SQL2K SP3 to MSDE on my local machine. Searching the MS site brought up this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b814052
>
>I used the Start...Run command in the KB article verbatim to work around my problem. On your machine, assuming you haven't already installed MSDE you could probably just specify SETUP.EXE and pass just the name of the .MSI file, e.g.

[FullPath]\Setup.EXE [FullPath]\SQLRun01.MSI

After installation, make sure it's at build 760 (right-click on SQL Server Service Manager in system tray, go to About, version should read 8.00.760). If it isn't, download and apply SP3 for MSDE: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2000/sp3.asp Note that you need only SQL2KDeskSP3.EXE.