Scenario: 

Windows failed to install SQL Server and show error message "Could not find the Database Engine startup handle" as below

This is because on systems running Windows 11, some new storage devices and device drivers expose a disk sector size larger than the supported 4 KB sector size.

When this happens, SQL Server cannot start because of the unsupported file system because SQL Server currently supports sector storage sizes of 512 bytes and 4 KB.

You can confirm that you are experiencing this specific issue by following step:

1. Search Command Prompt and run as administrator

2. Copy this command fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C: and run in command prompt.

3. You can see the values for PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance is greater than 4kb size.

Solution 

To resolve this issue, have to update the values of PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance = 4 KB.

1. Copy below command and run in Command Prompt to update the values

REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device" /v "ForcedPhysicalSectorSizeInBytes" /t   REG_MULTI_SZ /d "* 4095" /f

2. You will see “The operation completed successfully” after run.

3. Restart PC and Install SQL Server again

Thanks for viewing