Sphinx Search - Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.

Problem:

Installing Sphinx Search on my computer to do some testing, I bypassed the heavy documentation in hopes of a quick start-up. Instead, on trying to start the Sphinx Search on Windows, I was met by an error reading:

Windows could not start the SphinxSearch service on Local Computer.
Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.

Solution:

This is generally caused by the configuration file being setup incorrectly. Ensure you have configured the conf file correctly before starting the Sphinx Search service. To determine exact errors, trying running the search daemon from the sphinx bin directory.

C:\sphinx\bin> searchd
C:\sphinx\bin>indexer --rotate --all

If you're still not sure how to get going with Sphinx Search, check out this fantastic video walk through: