I have also experienced this problem after removing an existing install.
The configuration wizard hung at the Start Service stage.
Examining the error in the Event Viewer from the MS Control Panel I got 4 messages , the first of which was :
"Plugin 'InnoDB' init function returned error"
After reading the various forums I finally found the logfiles and the error log.
In the 64 bit version they are in
C:\ProgramData\MySql\MySqlServer5.5\data ---- NOTE "ProgramData" this is not Program Files.
The two logfiles, 'ib_logfile0' and 'ib_logfile1' may be the wrong size. This is displayed in the XXXX.err file, where XXX is the name of your computer as set in the computer properties. Mine were approx 64Meg, and they now are 53.248 KB
Deleting the two ib_logfiles fixed the problem and running :
C:\Program Files\MySql\MySqlServer5.5\bin\MySqlInstanceConfig.exe
This ran ok when I used the 'typical' settings.
The answer seems to be to remove the log files stored in your
C:\ProgramData\MySql\MySqlServer5.5\data area.
PS I found that "
http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/"; provides excellent instructions and visuals for installing Apache, PHP and MySql.