how to re-install drupal 8 from scratch

Question

Does Drupal 8 store its installation state in places other than the database? I had dropped the database several times to go through the installation from scratch, but it seems to be skipping steps at this point since it thinks its already "semi-installed".

I am a Drupal newbie, but experienced dev. I am using Windows 10, latest Firefox browser, Drupal 8.5.1 and MAMP (4.0 -- I think). I successfully created the database, reached the Drupal choice of language start of installation page, and kicked it off BUT it had skipped the database setup page -- obviously it thinks it already knows where it is. And, it skipped the "site setup" step.
Then it launches a blank page with this url:

http://localhost/drupal/core/install.php?rewrite=ok&langcode=en&profile=standard&continue=1

and there is nothing happening. When I go to the drupal page again, it shows me the login page -- but I never had a chance to setup admin user, so I am stuck at that point.

So, how do I start from the very very begining? Thank you

As far as I know, drupal also stores config files at sites/defaults/files and sites/defaults/settings.php - Have you tried starting from a fresh drupal copy or even better, installing it with composer? — lumio

leymannx leymannx · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-29T20:23:30

Yes, on installation Drupal also does some other things beneath populating the database. It creates a settings.php file inside the /sites/default or /sites/mysite folder. Inside this file some information gets stored which then automatically gets skipped asking for the next time you reinstall Drupal (mainly it's which installation profile and the database credentials).

Simply delete the settings.php file and empty the /sites/default/files or /sites/mysite/files folder and you'll start from zero the next time you'll call your site in the browser.

The blank page may be caused by a misconfigured .htaccess file. Uncomment

RewriteBase /

in Drupal's root .htaccess file.

Pro Tip: If you are going to work with Drupal regularly, start all projects using this template: https://github.com/drupal-composer/drupal-project and choose PHPStorm as IDE. More about this template can be found on DO.

how to re-install drupal 8 from scratch

2 Answers