Failed to Inplace upgarde from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows 2012 R2

Question

Hi Guys,

I am trying to perform inplace upgarde from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows 2012 R2 but failed with teh following error" Windows installation can not be performed" or "windows could not start the installation process" while similar VMs were upgarded last year from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows R2 without any issues. Any clue would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi anonymous user,

While in-place upgrades are officially supported, the recommended method is to clean install and migrate your data/roles to the new server, as in-place upgrades can have various of issues.

A few things to check:

• Make sure the server does not have any pending reboots.
• Make sure your Windows Server 2008 R2 server is fully patched.
• Make sure your Windows Server 2008 R2 server does not have any software such as an antivirus or antimalware that may prevent the upgrade.

You can also follow the official documentation below and follow the "Before you begin your in-place upgrade" section:

Upgrade Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/upgrade/upgrade-2008r2-to-2012r2

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Best regards,
Leon

Answer 2

Just a few thoughts:

• Did you shut down the services from third-parties during the upgrade?
• Disable all the Programmes in the background?
• No one logged in? (except you for the upgrade)

I call that BS too... no time to migrate but inplace upgrade... I just say they do not want to have to do a cleanup.

Answer 3

Hi

We could check these things when the installation failure occurs:

1. If we have disabled virus protection software
2. If we have mass storage provided for drivers
3. We could turn windows firewall on by default

Here is the link about upgrading Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2 , which may be helpful to you.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/upgrade/upgrade-2008r2-to-2012r2#:~:text=To%20perform%20the%20upgrade%201%20Make%20sure%20the,you%20can%20ignore%20it%20and%20select%20Confirm.%20

If all these problems are still constant , we could consider to start a clean installation of windows server 2012 R2.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/dn303418(v=ws.11)

Best regards

Answer 4

Uninstalling Sophos Antivirus resolved the issue.