In-place upgrade to Windows Server 2012 fails with 'Failed to CoCreate IPersistAppItemsState object' messages

I am encountering problems attempting to upgrade a server from 64-bit Windows Server 2008 "in-place" to Windows Server 2012 (not R2).

The errors are similar to:

[shmig] Failed to CoCreate IPersistAppItemsState object, hr=0x80040154

I have searched the web for suggestions and for the specific error messages. I have tried most of the suggestions I have found, and have managed to reduce the total number of errors, but the upgrade still fails.

The server is a Dell PowerEdge 1950 server. I have upgraded the BIOS to the latest version, as well as all the firmware and drivers from Dell for the disk controllers, network adapters, display, etc. I have uninstalled all unnecessary software applications, and I have run Windows update to install all the latest updates (from Microsoft, not just from the domain update server). The server is not a domain controller and is not running Exchange. Essentially the only applications still installed on the server are antivirus, SQL Server 2008 R2, and BackupExec 2014 (which uses tape drives connected to this server).

It is currently running Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit (not the R2 edition), and I am attempting to upgrade it to Windows Server 2012 (not the R2 edition).

Based on suggestions that I have seen - I have added the environment variable MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS with a value of IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll; I have tried giving a drive letter to the reserved portion of the system drive (and also tried without a drive letter); I have given that partition a label of "System Reserved"; I have tried with and without getting updates during the first part of the install process.

The number of errors has been reduced with some of these changes, but the file setuperr.log in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther still contains the following errors:

Error      [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {050ed09e-a530-41e6-8ac9-a9a96e74a2c1}: [shmig] Failed to CoCreate IPersistAppItemsState object, hr=0x80040154
Error      [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {050ed09e-a530-41e6-8ac9-a9a96e74a2c1}: [shmig] Failed to CoCreate IPersistAppItemsState object, hr=0x80040154
Error      [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {050ed09e-a530-41e6-8ac9-a9a96e74a2c1}: [shmig] Failed to CoCreate IPersistAppItemsState object, hr=0x80040154
Error      [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {65cbf70b-1d78-4cac-8400-9acd65ced94a}: CreateProcess(s) failed. GLE = d
Error      [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {ee036dc0-f9b7-4d2d-bb94-3dd3102c5804}: BRIDGEMIG: CBrgUnattend::CollectBridgeSettings failed: 0x1, 0

This list of errors has not changed in the past few variations that I have tried.

I have tried searching for these GUID values and the error messages, but I haven't been able to find any new suggestions for resolving the issues.

Can anyone suggest any approach that might resolve these errors? Or, do I need to abandon the upgrade and do a new install of Windows Server 2012 (after backing up SQL Server and BackupExec), and then re-installing the applications?

Update:

I tried again upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2; this still fails, but there are more errors logged in the setuperr.log file for this upgrade attempt than for the Windows Server 2012 attempt. The 2008-R2 upgrade log file contains:

Error Number of Enumerated Devices = 12[gle=0x00000103]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=ffffffffx[gle=0x00000003]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=ffffffffx[gle=0x00000003]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=ffffffffx[gle=0x00000003]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
Error Failed to find driver file path. Error=ffffffffx[gle=0x00000003]
Error [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}: CscMig: CscMigrationPlugin::raw_Discover(998):Unable to extract Sid Map, status = 0xc000003a
Error [0x080387] MIG    Failure while calling IDiscovery->Discover for Plugin={ServerPath="Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles-Core\Cscmig.dll", CLSID={0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}, ThreadingModel=Apartment}. Error: 0x80070003
Error [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}: CscMig: CscMigrationPlugin::raw_Discover(998):Unable to extract Sid Map, status = 0xc000003a
Error [0x080387] MIG    Failure while calling IDiscovery->Discover for Plugin={ServerPath="Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles-Core\Cscmig.dll", CLSID={0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}, ThreadingModel=Apartment}. Error: 0x80070003
Error [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}: CscMig: CscMigrationPlugin::raw_Discover(998):Unable to extract Sid Map, status = 0xc000003a
Error [0x080387] MIG    Failure while calling IDiscovery->Discover for Plugin={ServerPath="Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles-Core\Cscmig.dll", CLSID={0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}, ThreadingModel=Apartment}. Error: 0x80070003
Error [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}: CscMig: CscMigrationPlugin::raw_Gather(1111):Fatal error gather information from CSC cache, status = 0xc000003a
Error [0x080389] MIG    Failure while calling IDiscovery->Gather for Plugin={ServerPath="Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles-Core\Cscmig.dll", CLSID={0db12ccb-7cfd-46b6-b4d1-daa6ff0fbcf7}, ThreadingModel=Apartment}. Error: 0xD000003A
Error [0x0808fe] MIG    Plugin {e0cbf06c-cd8b-4647-bb8a-263b43f0f974}: BthMig: Failed to migrate bthport keys, bailing out