StarWind Software

Hi,
I've been using StarWind vSAN free in my homelab since 2021. I've upgraded from v8_14338 to v8_14398 without any issues in 2022 after reinstalling one of my hosts on Windows Server 2022 and am revisiting now because I was gonna expand my image file.
Now I saw, that there were a lot of newer versions, so I went on to update to v8_15260. I've stopped the cluster node, disconnected my iSCSI targets and started the installer. Now I was prompted to close the management console (no issues there) and am stuck now at the "Stopping the StarWindService service..." for ages. After like 5 minutes of it looping (I witnessed the successful stopping of the service, so it was so stopped after a few seconds), I killed the process and rebooted the server. No help there. Then I went ahead and uninstalled the software via the unins000.exe. Now I am expecting a fresh install, but again it shows that message, while the service doesn't even exist yet. I'm out of ideas what to try next and stuck without redundancy, as I'm unable to get my second instance back up. I've also tried the v8_14398 installer which I had lying around still.

This will be a fun quest, given the fact that no prep was made for reinstallation. No worries, things don't look too bad.
First thing: Is the service there? Do sc queryex StarWindService.
If running, try re-adding the server in the Management Console (i.e., remove the node > add again). Use the Newer Management Console (15260, if that's the destination build for you, should do it).