In place upgrade of Server 2003R2 STD to 2008 SP2 fails at "Gathering Files"

Question

I have a customer with two identical Dell servers. They both had Server 2003R2, and are both DC's. I did an inplace upgrade on the primary server in December to Server 2008 SP2 STD x86 without issue. I have since gone onsight to upgrade the second server
to 2008 and the installation fails at the "Gathering Files" part of the installation.
I have tried new medai, checked the event log. All I get is a popup that says "Installation encountered and error and cannot continue" and then I am back to the 2003 desktop. All of the pre-work completed without fail as to the domain prep etc. I cannot
find any reference on line as to this issue save for a few regarding Vista. I know Vista and Server 2008 SP2 are the same kernal, but the one solution I found was to remove user accounts, which i cannot do as its AD controller.
Please advise, as this is a remote customer and I only get on site 2 to 3 times a year and this upgrade is behind schedule. Thank you in advance for your asistance.
Shayne Noel
LAN Admin
Alberni technology Solutions
250 731 9625 

Answer 1

Hi,
I suggest performing a Clean Boot first. This can reduce third-party software conflictions during the upgrading.
Clean Boot
========
1. Click Start, type "MSCONFIG" (without the quotations) in the Search Bar and Press "Enter" to start the System Configuration Utility.
Note: Please click Continue if the "User Account Control" window pops up.
2. Click the "Services" tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and click "Disable All" (if it is not gray).
3. Click the "Startup" tab, click "Disable All" and click "OK".
4. Restart the computer and test the issue.
Note: Clean Boot is a troubleshooting step. If some programs have been disabled, we can re-enable them later. If you see the System Configuration Utility,
check the box of "Don't show this message" and then click "OK".
Then upload all unnecessary hardware devices such as sound card, network card and external USB drives.
Now upgrade to Windows Server 2008 again.
If any error message appears, please let me know the exact wording of the error message.
In addition, please upgrade the following files (if they exist) to
https://sftus.one.microsoft.com/choosetransfer.aspx?key=b7d773d8-200a-4532-bc95-4a1c5a506dd3
Password: i!94cn^n7+m_6
C:\windows\panther\setupact.log
C:\windows\panther\setuperr.log
C:\windows\panther\unattendgc\setupact.log
C:\windows\panther\unattendgc\setuperr.log
C:\windows\setupact.log
C:\windows\setuperr.log
Tim Quan
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
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