I uploaded via FTP Drupal, and made sure that the CHMOD authorization was 775.

I set up a database, typed in the name, admin name, and password, pressed continue, everything seemed to load fine, then it comes up and says:

Drupal already installed

* To start over, you must empty your existing database.
* To install to a different database, edit the appropriate settings.php file in the sites folder.
* To upgrade an existing installation, proceed to the update script.

I've done this three times, and so far I keep on getting the same issue... what is not going on, or what is going on that is causing this to happen?

Comments

StevenSokulski’s picture

It is saying this because a version of the Drupal databse appears to alrealdy be present in your MySQL database. Access your database (via PHPmyAdmin or similar program) and clear any fields that you did not create. Or create a new database if you have that option.

Do you have any other parts of your site that use the database?

Cyberpawz’s picture

No, and for some reason it seems to of fixed itself, now I am coming up with some new issues...

The admin folder doesn't exist for some reason... on a new install, for when I try to do a clean-urls function following http://drupal.org/node/120614

It doesn't work, I get a 404 error... when I look at the folder on my computer the admin folder isn't there either, so it never uploaded...am I missing something or was the latest rev of this software pushed out without all of the files and folders?

I've read the folder doesn't exist, well that's all nice and dandy, but the command to run the clean URL test doesn't work... and what I've seen on the website so far doesn't exactly answer how to do it either...

mysite.com/?q=admin/settings/clean-urls is fine, but when I do what is suggested on the site, it still doesn't work.

Cyberpawz’s picture

My hosting server says this:

If you have implemented .htaccess on your site, it may be interfering with the web page you are trying to load into your browser. Please either remove the .htaccess file or double check the .htaccess configurations to ensure that it doesn't contain any errors. Currently Netfirms only supports .htaccess the following directives:

AuthType
ErrorDocument
RewriteEngine
Redirect
Options
IndexOptions
IndexIgnore *

StevenSokulski’s picture

There is no admin folder. The point of Drupal is that there is not a corresponding file to every thing you can access from the site. example.com/admin is the test to see if you can run clean urls. Otherwise the domain is example.com/?q=admin. Your problem is that your htaccess file isn't set properly, most likely. Be sure that the base url in your htaccess file is set to your domain properly.

Cyberpawz’s picture

How do I do that, sorry but unless I get a clear path example of where to edit that information, I won't know what to do, and how to do it...

Where do I put the .htaccess file as well?

The fact that the host doesn't allow certain commands won't cause an issue?

Because when I put in the command:

AllowOverride All

The site goes down, because as far as I know the host doesn't allow that command to work...

kolouker’s picture

I have the same exact problem. I have even removed the entire drupal instal from the server and set up a new database, yet somehow it still says "drupal already installed". Is there any file outside the web directory on the server that it may refer to?

walid’s picture

i had a drupal version (some 4.7.something) from last year on the same server.
but i tried to install drupal 5.1 to a newly created mysql database und that ended up with this annoying "Drupal already installed".
i then removed the old drupal installation completely. deleted files. deleted database. and then i started the drupal 5.1 installation again.
result: "Drupal already installed"

Lythia’s picture

Also having the Exact Same Problem...

Lythia’s picture

Hmm doubleposted... editted out.

jaredwiltshire’s picture

I just ran into this. Check your site is not being cached by a proxy. Thats what was causing it for me.

georgs’s picture

Hi all,
the same problem, posted here: http://drupal.org/node/141934

popazit’s picture

Install System Fails on Some Installations.

Despite installing my scripts on a VPS (php 5, mysql 5) with no prior Drupal installations (fresh install),

I am getting a "Drupal already installed" Error with Drupal 5.1. Drupal 4.7 had no problems. I cant even manually install databases in drupal since 5.1 doesnt come with a databases folder!

Trying to access mysite.com or www.mysite.com or www.mysite.com/
redirects to www.mysite.com/install.php

This is a big problem as I found many other users having the same one.

This is a really easy but buggy CMS to install... Why the errors? Wordpress, vBulletin and 100 other scripts install no problem on my servers.

Please help us.
Cheers

popazit’s picture

I installed drupal 4.7.6 database manually then updated.

After logging out (after creating a user), it says the same thing! Drupal already installed....

weird stuff this is serious error with Drupal.

popazit’s picture

proxify.com fixes problem...!?

why is ip a problem with the install.php redirect??

ranjanr’s picture

This problem can be resolved by changing the base_url pointing to your site. Thanks !

JasonMR’s picture

I've never had any such issues, so I'm a little baffled.

I've changed the base_url to the sites URL, but I'm still being redirected to install.php, if I go to exampl.com/drupal. I find this particularly strange, as this have never happened previously, but especially as when I access the site through proxy.com (as the fellow above), the issue doesn't occur.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

camypaj’s picture

Im still testing, but it seems that base_url solved the problem.

Thank you! :)

miller.nw’s picture

I was getting the same "drupal already installed" after I changed the permissions of settings.php at the end of install. Here's what I did to fix the problem..

1.) grant all permissions to settings.php (CHMOD 777)
2.) go to your site by adding "/index.php" (e.g. www.yourdomain.com/index.php) and register yourself (setup your account)
3.) CHMOD (change the permissions of) settings.php to 444.

After that everything worked fine and I was able to access the site without the "/index.php".

Hope this helps.

v_parthi’s picture

I had all the above problems i.e. It said 'Drupal already installed'. I changed the base_url to the site directory where drupal was installed.

The problem now is quite weird: IE shows the actual Drupal index page everytime, but not the firefox. I cleared the firefox cache and it was the same.

I went to a new machine where I never tested my installation. It shows the same behaviour: Index page on IE and 'Drupal already installed' on Firefox.

Can somebody guess the problem?

Many thanks,
Parthiban.

cakka’s picture

Hi, i am getting the same problem ....
Any idea to solve this problem ?
Thanks

---
http://www.ckcybers.com

eMarv’s picture

I was receiving the same error with a 6.10 install on a postgresql database. We use a different port than the default 5432 postgres port. Once I added the port to the database url in settings.php, it worked like a charm.

Much Success!
Marvin
drupalling here: free business leads

kip stanning’s picture

hi folks,

i ran into this problem a couple of days ago.

the solution in my case was doing things in the right order:

  1. upload drupal files to web. DON'T change permissions right away, DON'T copy default.settings.php to settings.php right away /drupaldateien in den webspace hochladen. die notwendigen berechtigungen NICHT sofort setzen und drupal.settings.php NICHT gleich jetzt kopieren.
  2. point your browser to the directory your drupal-files are in. you get the message, that drupal wants you to copy default.settings.php to settings.php. caution: don't delete default.settings.php. although it obviously has no function, deleting it will stop the installation. don't change permissions at this point. / geh mit deinem browser zum verzeichnis, in dem deine drupaldateien sich befinden. auf der seite, die dir angezeigt wird, wirst du aufgefordert (mittels roter error-meldung), dass du die datei default.settings.php kopieren und die kopierte datei in settings.php umbenennne sollst. tu das. es müssen sich nun beide dateien (default.settings.php UND settings.php) im verzeichnis "default" befinden. auch jetzt noch keine berechtigungen ändern.
  3. go back to your browser and reload your page. the error message changes and drupal asks you to grant it the permission to write to settings.php and to the "default"-directory. now it's time to set these permissions (777 in both cases). / geh zurück in deinen browser und aktualisiere die seite. jetzt kommt die rote error-meldung, dass drupal schreibberechtigung für settings.php und das verzeichnis "default" benötigt. JETZT erst ändere diese berechtigungen (in beiden fällen 777).
  4. going back to the browser and reloading the page will run the database-install. the rest should be no problem (you will be reminded to reset the permissions of the default-directory and of settings.php) /wenn du jetzt in den browser zurückgehst und die seite aktualisierst, läuft die installation der datenbank ab. der rest sollte keine problem sein. drupal wird dich erinnern, die berechtigungen zurückzusetzen (in meinem fall settings.php auf 644 und default-verzeichnis auf 755).

that was it.

regards
karl

hbkarun’s picture

hi me to got the same problem,i used drupal for crating pages locally using xampp,
i followed some tut on installing drupal..it says change default.settings.php to settings.php
and add

$db_url='mysql://username:password@localhost/drupal';

# $base_url='http://localhost.com/drupal';

in the settings.php

==

i did all these but i got this error

Drupal already installed

•To start over, you must empty your existing database.
•To install to a different database, edit the appropriate settings.php file in the sites folder.
•To upgrade an existing installation, proceed to the update script.
•View your existing site.

--

so the solution is

u dont have to rename 'default.settings.php' to 'settings.php'

just keep the original default settings file as it is and execute
http://localhost/drupal/install.php
if u want to use drupal locally
and installation page executed perfectly and then asked any more details on installing..

hope it helps..:)


regards,

jlaaker’s picture

I have to admitt that I struggled a bit. I have a mulitisite installation and experienced the problems with "Drupal already installed". Then I deleted all the nettworks in desperation just to try to make things work. But nothing happened. Still "Drupal already installed" - Blæææh. Then suddenly it stroke me that I was using the old D6 version of settings.php.

When I changed this, everything worked again. And now I have brand new shiny sites :-)

thatjustin’s picture

I just fixed this. Drupal thinks that if there is a settings.php that already exists, then you have a pre-existing installation.

beto_beto’s picture

hello

i have the same issue here
my website D6 redirect to http://www.xxx.com/install.php with blank page
i contact the server and they replay PHP settings were not changed..

Can any one help me in this ASP ....

:(

Anonymous’s picture

Had already installed vanilla drupal 7.17 on my vps and was just uploading my database and sites folder then changed settings.php to reflect the name of my database and going to my URL the page was blank so have deleted settings.php and now install.php showing....question is what next?

achbed’s picture

This is old, but still happens occasionally on Drupal 7. This happens if you have (a) an empty database, (b) the database info in settings.php is updated to the empty database, AND (c) (this is KEY) the settings.php is Drupal 6 format.

To fix this, update the settings.php to the new Drupal 7 format.

obadaabdullah’s picture

I had the same issue when i tried to install Drupal on Win7 - 64 , XAMPP, Localhost, phpMyadmin.

to solve this go to yuor Duraple folder within XAMPP folder, then [yourDuraplefolder]\sites\default
there is a setting.php file, what i did is just rename into "_setting.php"

then installation continued.

Dharti Pandey’s picture

go to site localhost/phpmyadmin and clear drupal database.And create new drupal database with different name.
Then reinstall the drupal with different folder location.
hopefully, you get the result.

lakenney’s picture

Thank you! The problem for me is the error is telling me it already exists. When I go into localhost/phpmyadmin, the database name that I was trying to create does not already exist. I created the database and then I was able to successfully run through the install. It seems you should create your database first and then go to localhost for the install. (I'm using MAMP in my local files.)