Can't remove active node from SQL Server 2008 R2 Clustered Instance I am trying to remove the active and only node from a SQL Server 2008 R2 failover cluster. 



Everything checks out and then I get this error

  Final result:                  Failed: see details below
  Exit code (Decimal):           -568706566
  Exit facility code:            1562
  Exit error code:               14842
  Exit message:                  Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700B7)
  Start time:                    2015-05-30 16:09:38
  End time:                      2015-05-30 16:10:28
  Requested action:              RemoveNode

2015-05-30 18:47:12 Slp: Sco: Attempting to write hklm registry key SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSSQLServer to file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20150530_184438\Registry_SOFTWARE_Wow6432Node_Microsoft_MSSQLServer.reg_
2015-05-30 18:47:13 Slp: Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700B7)
2015-05-30 18:47:13 Slp: Watson bucket for exception based failure has been created





2015-05-30 16:10:24 Slp: Error: Action "Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.ValidateFeatureSettingsAction" threw an exception during execution.
2015-05-30 16:10:24 Slp: Microsoft.SqlServer.Setup.Chainer.Workflow.ActionExecutionException: Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700B7) ---&gt; System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800700B7): Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700B7)
2


Any thoughts on what is causing this error?
I needed to remove an instance that was only installed on one node on a two node cluster. This unwanted instance had never been installed on the second node.

The error in the summary and detail log files stored in Setup Bootstrap sent me in the wrong direction.

I finally resolved the issue by following the following steps.


Adding a node to the unwanted instance
Move the unwanted instance to the second node
Removed the node from the first node
Removed the node from the second node


Unwanted instance removed from the cluster.