Overview
If you are using Windows 11 and have certain types of storage devices or drivers that use a sector size larger than 4 KB, SQL Server will not be able to start because it only supports sector sizes of 512 bytes and 4 KB.
To check if you are encountering this problem, you can run this command:
fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C:
If the value of "PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity" is 4096, then run this command in an elevated command prompt on the system that is having issues.
REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device" /v "ForcedPhysicalSectorSizeInBytes" /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d "* 4095" /f
After changing the registry, Uninstall SQL and Restart the computer
Related error Codes/messages:
A network-related or instance-specific error while establishing a connection to SQL Server.
Error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)
Wait on the database engine recovery handle failed