Often, the underlying cause (if checking logs) may show errors related to SQL Server or LocalDB failing to start — for instance, “misaligned log IOs” or synchronous-IO fallback warnings, rather than a clear MAWi-specific error.

Root Cause (when using SSD/SD drive on Windows 11)

• On Windows 11, some modern SSDs (or SD/virtual drives) report a “physical sector size” greater than 4096 bytes. 

• SQL Server (or LocalDB) does not support running on disks whose physical sector size exceeds 4 KB. When such a drive is used, SQL Server fails to initialize properly.
  This causes any dependent installation — such as MAWi — to fail, manifesting as “Could not deploy package”.

• The core of the problem is a mismatch between the expected disk sector size and what the SSD/SD drive reports under Windows 11.

Diagnostic Steps

1. Determine if disk sector size is problematic

   • Open a terminal (PowerShell or CMD) as Administrator.

   • Run:

     fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo <volume>
     

     Replace <volume> with your drive letter, for example C:

   • In the output, check the values for PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity and PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance. If either is greater than 4096 bytes, the drive is likely incompatible with SQL Server/LocalDB under Windows 11. NimblePros Blog+1

2. Review SQL Server / installer logs

   • If you install despite the sector size mismatch, the SQL Server ERRORLOG may show messages like:

     there have been 256 misaligned log IOs which required falling back to synchronous IO
     

     … or other IO-related errors.

   • Such logs confirm the sector-size incompatibility rather than a MAWi bug.

Workarounds / Fixes

Option A: Force SQL Server to use 4KB sector emulation via registry tweak

This is the fix documented in the blog post that inspired this article. Steps: 

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator.

2. Execute:

   New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device" `
       -Name "ForcedPhysicalSectorSizeInBytes" `
       -PropertyType MultiString `
       -Force `
       -Value "* 4095"
   

3. Confirm that the registry key has been set:

   Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device" `
       -Name "ForcedPhysicalSectorSizeInBytes"
   

4. Reboot your machine.

5. Retry installation of MAWi (so that SQL Server / LocalDB can initialize properly under the emulated 4 KB sector size) 
   

Summary

MAWi’s “Could not deploy package” error on Windows 11 is often not due to MAWi itself, but because SQL Server (or LocalDB) fails to initialize on a modern SSD/SD drive whose physical sector size is greater than 4 KB. The root cause lies in how Windows 11 reports disk geometry — a known incompatibility with SQL Server under those conditions. The primary workaround is to force sector-size emulation (4 KB) via a registry tweak, then reinstall SQL Server cleanly. For a more stable environment, using a different drive reporting 4096-byte physical sectors is recommended.