Sharepoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard Error : Failed to create sample data

I'm running the Sharepoint 2013 Products and Technology Configuration Wizard and its failing after step 7/8 giving me the following error:

One or more configuration settings failed.

Failed to create sample data.

An exception of type System.NullReferenceException was thrown.  Additional exception information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

And here is the detail in the event log,

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.    at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPEvaluatorModeProvisioner.IsProvisioned()   at Microsoft.Office.Server.EvaluatorModeProvisioning.SharedEvaluatorModeProvisioner.IsProvisioned()    at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPEvaluatorModeProvisioner.Provision()    at Microsoft.Office.Server.EvaluatorModeProvisioning.SharedEvaluatorModeProvisioner.Provision()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.EvalModeProvisionTask.EvalProvision()    at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.EvalModeProvisionTask.Run()    at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

Please help... thanks in advance.............