What server you are using? Maybe it is not compatible to run the Concrete5 latest version. Just ask your hosting provider.

Rony

Is your server a hosted webserver or a local machine using xampp or wamp? I've encountered many problems on wamp installing, sometimes it works but mostly it doesn't so I now install on my hosting account first and then download the files and database to setup local after.

If you have a dedicated or VPS server check your error logs for clues. Something must be creating an error. Also if you tried and failed on the initial install you may have to clear the database if any tables were created. Check the database for tables because that will help you know how far the installer got before crashing.

To directly answer your question, it's because concrete5 thinks it's installed itself (it's created database tables and a site.php file in your config directory).

So you need to remove that file and wipe your database.

But trying the install again without adjusting anything is very unlikely to work.

Without more details about your install (OS, server type, etc), there's no way to tell what is going wrong. Is your 'own server' with a hosting company, or is just on your home computer? You could have your memory limits set too low, you could be running it on IIS, you could be missing some PHP config, etc, etc, etc. You need to provide details to get help.

You'd might need to look at your PHP logs to see what happened, or try a different way to set up your server.

My server is a Ubuntu server running apache2.

I guess I need to figure out where this site.php was supposed to be put and figure out how to erase the database and start over.

Thanks everyone.