So I've hit a bit of a confusing issue. We have a pair of servers, that run Backup Exec. They were running an older version that used SQL 2008 Express. We upgraded it to SQL 2012 Express SP3 a while back. Along the way, someone else had installed a separate version of SQL 2017-RC1 (full, not express).
Fast forward and we're upgrading to a new Backup Exec that uses SQL 2014 express SP2. For whatever reasons the SQL 2014 install would fail. Since the other SQLs were not important, we removed all the previous SQL installs, along with Backup Exec. So on paper the system is clean of SQL.
Now when trying to install any SQL higher than 2008, whether 2012, 2014 or even 2017. I get stuck on the screen that says "Please wait while Microsoft SQL Server 201x setup processes the current operation" and it just sits there forever (and by forever, I've left it for over 24 hours). I've ran Windows updates, stripped out as much older software as possible, but none of those 3 versions will install. Oddly (or maybe not) version 2008 express will still install, but I can not upgrade to a newer version, it will again just sit and hang at the please wait screen.
Not sure where the error is at, but any insight would be appreciated.