Error Message: This Upgrade Product Can Only Upgrade an Existing Small Business Server Installation (237822)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you try to upgrade Small Business Server (SBS) 4.5 free Value Upgrade (VUP), using the SBS 2000 Upgrade media, you may receive the following error message:

This Upgrade product can only upgrade an existing Small Business Server installation.

CAUSE

This issue can occur when the upgrade process checks the server registry to verify the existing installation is SBS version 4.0, not the standard Microsoft Windows NT Server or BackOffice. If the BackOffice keys do exist or the SBS keys have been removed, then the upgrade process generates the error message listed earlier in this article.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To resolve this issue if the server is running SBS version 4.0 or 4.0a, use Registry Editor to verify that the following registry key does not exist, and if it does, back it up and then delete it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\BackOffice

MORE INFORMATION

If SBS has been upgraded to BackOffice 4.0, then the Value Upgrade cannot be applied. The server must be upgraded to BackOffice Server 4.5 instead of SBS 4.5.

REFERENCES

216068 BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5 Version Upgrade Fulfillment