I could use help (lots) trying to get DNN to run locally. It's been a few weeks since started this and was last able to work on it, so many of the details are fuzzy or gone until I work through this process again to refresh my memory.

I'm trying to create a local development environment to match what I will have installed on our dedicated web server.

Using this page for instructions on installing: http://www.dnnsoftware.com/Resources/Wiki/Page/Install_DotNetNuke.aspx

I've tried installing to 2 different machines. One is Win7 x64 running both SQL Server Express 2008 and 2012 (I think). The other is a virtual XP x86 running SQL Server Express 2005 (to match the dedicated web server).

 The Win7 installation seemed to install correctly, but upon opening the site, it supplies a very helpful DotNetNuke Error page:

I'm assuming this has something to do with not having successfully created a database. I can't find any database relating to DNN, using SQL Server Mgmt Studio. My goal was to let DNN create its own database, but I don't remember which of the installation scenarios I followed. Seems it would've been the 2nd, even though the 1st applies to Express specifically, but I can't tell what "user instance database" means vs "attached database". I would think I want "attached database"... ??

 The virtual XP installation won't complete, because it can't get past the database setup stage. I put in the info (all sorts of different ways), but it returns errors along the lines of Class: 20; Number: -1 or 2. I just managed to get a DNN error when trying localhost\ServerName. Otherwise I've tried: .\ServerName, (local), (local)\ServerName, .\SQL2005, .\SQLExpress (the default), and probably some others. SQL Mgmt Studio lists the server as ComputerName\ServerName.

I can't tell at all where the problems may lie, and I've no experience setting up IIS, and little experience setting up SQL servers.