meet error when upgrade from 2008R2 to 2012R2

Question

I have a ibm system x machine which installed Windows server 2008R2, the base language is Chinese. Now I want to upgrade it to Windows server 2012 R2, when I click setup.exe and run it, it will show error in Compatibility report(saved to your desktop) window: You can't do a typical upgrade using an installation disc that's different from the language installed on your Computer. Go to blablabbla to see how to install Windows and keep your files an settings.

Windows server 2008R2 language is Chinese and I try to install language pack to switch it to ENGLISH, but error keep showing. How can I upgrade it? Is that my 2012 R2 license language different from CHINESE? How can I define my license language..

Thanks in advance!

source link: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/dc0773fd-3279-4625-abca-9de15899c369/meet-error-when-upgrade-from-2008r2-to-2012r2?forum=winserver8setup

Answer 1

Welcome to our new Microsoft Q&A Platform.

In-place upgrades are only supported in the same language. You can't upgrade from one language to another. So you should use Windows Server 2012 R2 Chinese version to do the upgrade.

After you have completed the upgrade, you can download and install the English Language Pack from Windows Update.