Cannot connect to L-VAIO\sqlexpress

I installed SQL Server 2008 R2 the other day to work with Visual Studio 2010 pro.

I was able to use SQL Server fine until this morning. I loaded up SQL Server Management Studio and I get the following error:

Cannot connect to L-VAIO\sqlexpress

A network-rela开发者_JAVA技巧ted or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: -1)

If I also load up Visual Studio 2010 I also cannot now get into my database.

Any ideas how to fix this?

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It seems like it can't find the server, check the service for SQL Server is running. Sometimes I find that it doesn't start properly.

Press the start button and type Services. Scroll down and look for the SQL Server instance service, should be something like: SQL Server (Instance).

@philjones88