Cannot Connect to SQL SERVER — Network related Error or Instance specific Error

The error message you’re encountering, “Cannot Connect to SQL SERVER — A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server,” indicates that the SQL Server service has not been started.

To overcome the issue follow below steps. There are two ways to do that,

Way 1

1. Go to “Services”.
2. Find and select “SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER)” from the list.

3. Click on the “Start Service” button. Then the service has been started.

4. Go to “SQL Management Studio” and connect again.

OR

Way 2

1. Go to start menu and expand “Microsoft SQL Server”.
2. Click on the “SQL Server Configuration Manager”.

3. Click on “SQL Server Services” under “SQL Server Configuration Manager (Local)” in the left side bar of the opened window.

4. Select “SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER)” in the right panel.

5. Click on the “Start Service” button. Then the service has been started.

6. Go to “SQL Management Studio” and connect again.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!