Upgrading from SQL Server 2008 R2 Express SP1 to SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise failed on Windows Server 2012

I installed stand alone instance of SharePoint 2013 on Widows Server 2012 datacenter – server. Install went fine with no issues. This install automatically installs SQL server 2008 R2 express with Service pack 1.

Hard limit of 10 GB

Next task was to restore a DB from another server which was 18 GB in size. SQL server reported message saying that the 10GB limit is hit at the time of restore:

The limitations of SQL Server Express are:
- Maximum 10 GB per database.
- Uses no more than 1 processor.
- Uses no more than 1 GB of internal memory.

Now, I had no choice but to upgrade to SQL server 2008 R2.

Upgrade failed

When I tried to upgrade from SQL server 2008 R2 express with Service pack 1 to SQL server 2008 R2 enterprise, first message I received was “This product has compatibility issues with current windows version.” and gave me an option to “Continue”. I did some digging to check the compatibility and found below information on Microsoft site before clicking “Continue”:

 (Select Features). I had to cancel the upgrade. I retried after reboot but same result.

Finally decided to give SQL server 2012 enterprise a shot and it worked fine right from the beginning, No errors and no unexpected prompts.

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