I got the error in question on my Windows11 for Postgres-V-12. The followed the below steps suggested by ASL:
initdb -D "D:\PostgreSql\12\data" -U postgres
pg_ctl start -D "D:\PostgreSql\12\data"
Now after the last step I am getting an error message; It says:
waiting for server to start....
postgres: could not find the database system
Expected to find it in the directory "D:/postgresqldata", but could not open file "D:/postgresqldata/global/pg_control": No such file or directory
stopped waiting
pg_ctl: could not start server.
Can someone please help me to resolve this issue?