Found the issue: The install that worked is on our in-house development server and I installed with a weak alpah-numeric password. The problem install is on a hosted, soon-to-be production server where I am using a strong, ramdomly generated password that includes special characters. One of the characters in the password that I was giving during the install was a double quote ("). I installed with a weak password - no problem - and changed it afterwards to the desired password (containing "). All is working. -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.nabble.com/Error-installing-9-5-on-Win-2012-R2-data-dir-not-created-tp5882726p5882926.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general