Unable to remove SMS 2003 Device Management Feature Pack   

Today I’m at a customer upgrading their SMS 2003 to SCCM 2007 with an in place upgrade. You would think this should be simple, right? Wrong.

 
 

I started with the normal, make sure the SMS 2003 on SP2 or higher…which was on SP3. Then checked for Windows updates, and added other normal required software. Then, I went to the Add/Remove programs to remove the SMS 2003 Feature Packs. I uninstall the OSD feature pack with no problems, then I tried uninstalling the SMS 2003 Device Management Feature Pack…ERROR. I found out the database was probably deleted when they moved the SQL databases to a new server. The error messages I received we’re, unable to connect to database… and then the wonderful popup. ERROR press OK. I thought this is lovely.

 
 

So I tried the following with no luck.

  1. Repair method through the Add/Remove programs
  2. Rerun the install from the devmgmt.msi file
  3. Force a full install with the /Fa switch on the MSIEXEC

 
 

Now, I’m upset and I need to have my problem solved now. What do I do? I backup the registry and did a search in the registry for “Device Management” and deleted every folder containing this entry. I made sure the folders information we’re associated to the SMS 2003 Device Management Feature Pack. This was about 6 entries I deleted. After this, I reran the prerequisite and with success.