SQL Server 2008 R2 SA Password

May be the windows user doesnt have a local admin rights.if your'e in a domain then check the domain user permissions.
if neither doesnt work  reinstall with mixed mode authentication and will be able to connect with a valid login.

I'm logged in with a user that has domain admin, enterprise admin, schema admin permissions. I'd rather not reinstall as sharepoint, and other services are using the instance

There is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 called User Account Control (UAC).  This feature causes a user, whether administrator or not, to provide credentials when opening applications that may affect the system as a whole.  A possible reason your administrative login is not working to login to the SQL Server is because you are not opening SQL Server Management Studio as administrator.  To get around this you will need to right click on SQL Server Management Studio and select "Run as administrator" each time you open the application.  After doing so, you should be able to use Windows Authentication to login to the SQL instance.

UAC settings can be adjusted, or even completely disabled, if you feel that it is not needed.  You can read more about Windows Server 2008 and UAC here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772207.aspx.

UAC is disabled on the server, and tried it again with right click as admin and I still get the same error.

I just looked through the services, and noticed there are instances installed for sharepoint etc.. however; I  don't see a default instance which I can connect to. Do I need to install another instance using SQL Server 2008 R2 express, and manage it that way?


If someone has some SBS 2008/2011 experience with SQL that would be great

One more thing. Is your domain admin user added as Local admin?

SBS is a domain controller, so there is no local admin

When you installed SQL Server Did you install named or default instance?

Which database are you trying to log into?

I answered my own question