Installing on new Windows 8 Computer

[ElT007]

I am trying to get PT 3 and PT4 installed on my new Windows 8 machine. Having trouble. In PT3, I am getting the following error in initdb.log

The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "SYSTEM".
This user must also own the server process.

The database cluster will be initialized with locale English_United States.1252.
The default text search configuration will be set to "english".

initdb: directory "C:/Program Files (x86)/PostgreSQL/8.3/data" exists but is not empty
If you want to create a new database system, either remove or empty
the directory "C:/Program Files (x86)/PostgreSQL/8.3/data" or run initdb
with an argument other than "C:/Program Files (x86)/PostgreSQL/8.3/data".

[kraada]

Try creating a new blank directory at the root of the C drive (e.g. C:\PostgreSQL\) and installing PostgreSQL to that folder and let me know if that works better for you.

[ElT007]

How do I do that?

[kraada]

Open Windows Explorer via the button on the taskbar at the bottom. In the left hand sidebar click where it says Local Disk (C:). You'll see some folders on the right hand side. Right click on the right hand side, choose New --> Folder and type in PostgreSQL and hit enter to name it.

Then when you run the installer, click to choose a different folder at the screen where it shows you where PostgreSQL is going to be installed (it's the second screen). For the tutorial on installing PostgreSQL with screenshot, see this documentation.

[ElT007]

I got the following error:

Service 'PostgreSQL Database Server 8.3' (pgsql-8.3) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.

[kraada]

Is your new machine 64 bit? If so, please try the 64 bit 9.0 installer, available here and that may work better for you.

[ElT007]

Why is the installer asking me for a password?

[WhiteRider]

You may need to enter your Windows admin password - is that what it's asking for?

[ElT007]

The setup box asks "Please provide a password for service account (postgres)". When I try my Win 8 password it says "The password specified was incorrect. Please enter the correct password for the postgres windows user account.

[WhiteRider]

Try:

dbpass
postgrespass
svcPASS83

Those are the likely default passwords if you have a partial installation.
If none of those work please follow this guide to fully uninstall and re-install PostgreSQL.