Quote Originally Posted by vuyiswam
Well i know a Sure way to Find an instance, but its a long way, get a SQL2005 installtion CD, there is a point where it ask you to install the Intance and there is a button that says "Installed Instances" if you click there if wil show you the instances for that Computer, but in most of the case the name of the instance is the name of the Computer. but now can i see the name of your Computer, if your Computer name has some "-", then when you install SQL it will create a default instance and it will remove the special character.

Hope it Helps
the default instance name for SQL Server are MSSQLSERVER and for SQL Express it's SQLEXPRESS