universal restore won't jump in when restoring

Hi,

with ATI 3641 Server how can I use the Universal Restore feature? I've made an image from our W2003Server partition and for testing I tried to restore to another computer. This does not work, the image will boot but stop after 3-4 seconds. My guess is that the HW differences cause this.

How does ATI determine that an image is restored to a different machine so that Universal Restore should correct the HAL? How can I invoke the Universal Restore even if ATI does not recognize HW differences?

-Hans

 

Hello drhanso,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

Please note that Acronis Universal Restore is an optional program feature. It should be purchased separately and installed from a separate .msi setup file. Acronis Universal Restore can only be installed on a computer where at least one of the following Acronis components is installed:

- Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows (local version);

- Acronis True Image Management Console;

- Acronis True Image Agent for Windows;

- Acronis Bootable Media Builder.

I would also recommend that you find additional information on how to use Acronis Universal Restore option in Chapter 3.6 "Acronis Universal Restore" and Chapter 6.3.12 "Using Acronis Universal Restore" Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Yes,

we own ATI 9.1 Server and Universal Restore. In ATI title bar there is 'ATI with Universal Restore'. Yes, and I've read the manual too.

Here's what I did:

1) Made an image of my server partition
2) Booted my laptop from a freshly made ATI CD (ATI with Universal restore was selected as a boot option, so it must be there)
3) Restored image to a partition on my laptop (to test a really different hardware...)
4) Restore finfished with no error, but no boot possible from this partition

I should have been asked someplace in that process about drivers or what? Nope, there was no trace of Universal Restore.

-Hans

 

Hello Hans,

Please uninstall the existing Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows with Acronis Universal Restore and install the latest build from scratch to the latest build of Acronis Universal Restore. The latest build of Acronis Unversal Restore can be downloaded from the updates page of the Acronis Web Site. After that please create a new Acronis True Image Bootable CD with Acronis Universal Restore and see if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information on the computer which partition with Windows 2003 Server you have backed up as it is described in Acronis Help Post. Then please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. You will be provided with a special version to get the log for troubleshooting.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Aleksandr, please answer the question as it was asked. How are we to "force" Universal Restore prompts to show in the restore wizard when restoring to similar hardware and the prompts do not appear as they should. A reply to this question should not require advanced diagnositcs and log files, we simply want a workaround for the moment.

Hans, did the latest verson solve the problem?

Thank you.
-Chris

 

Hi Chris,

unfortunately the problem is unresolved so far, but I don't have enough time at the moment to keep on muddling with this. My version is 3641.
Maybe it is because all of our partitions have got the same volume serial number, due to a programm that will only work if booted from a partitin with that certain number. So my guess was that ATIUR checks for that number?

-Hans

 

In my case I'm pretty certain the Universal Restore is not coming into play because I pulled the drive from the server and put it in a USB enclosure prior to performing the backup. When I did that, it mucked up the drive letters, so now when TIB goes to do the restore, it's not even giving the UR options because it sees it as just an external drive.

Your theory sounds plausible as well. Hopefully they'll get back to us soon with some form of workaround. Thanks for the additional info.

-Chris

 

Hans, I was able to get mine to prompt for universal restore. I restored the original image to the server that I had backed up previously as stated above. I then restarted, but kept the TIB boot cd in the drive, and backed up the server again, but directly from the server via the USB port this time. I then restarted again, launched TIBwithUR, and when restoring the image I had just backed up, it prompted me with the universal restore options this time.

This may not work for your scenario, but it could be worth a try. Best of luck to you. I'll watch this board for a few more days to see if you have any additional questions I might be able to help with.

Scoring
Acronis support: 0
Acronis users: 1

-Chris

 

Chris,

but the unresolved issue remains: How does ATI determine if UR should jump in or not? I'd rather have a 'manual override' of ATI's artificial intelligence....

NOW would be a good time for ATI support to reveal the secrets of how and when UR jumps in.

-Hans

PS: I've always backed up to external drives....

 

Hans,

Same here as far as backing up to external drives, the difference this time that caused UR not to show up was I had pulled the drive and put it in a USB enclosure, and then backed it up to another usb drive.

I wholeheartedly agree, we need to know under what conditions UR will and will not show itself, and how to force it to do so.

Aleksandr, your quick response is requested and required.

 

Dear all,
Same problem - Purchased TI9.1 workstation and UR in order to boot a disk on a different laptop. the original laptop died but it is crucial that the disk be booted in order to use the application that is installed on it, hence the Universal restore.

No matter how much I tried and from what TI variation I tried, "use/do not use universal restore" screen never appears in the restore process.


Step by step of what I did:
1. Successfully installed TI9.1 workstation AND universal restore on a fresh installed Sony Vaio laptop (window title shows "TrueImage9.1 WITH universal restore).

2. Created a backup of a drive contents (the drive was installed in a USB enclosure and attached to the laptop).

3. Created Recovery media on CD - didn't alter the options the wizard selected for me (four options checked, WITH universal restore).

4. Tried to boot from the recovery media I created, unsuccessfully. it looks like the computer is trying to boot from the CD but after about 2 minutes, starts booting the HD. Computer started booting from Windows XP CD without any problem.

5. Tried restoring from the acronis Zone - UR screen doesn't show up.

Help anyone?

Thanks,
Eran

 

Ok, updates...

1. Non booting media issue resolved (the drive used to burn the media was bad).
2. While booting from the media (TI9.1 with UR - full version) I tried the recovery wizard. still, the UR screens don't show up.

Any ideas?

Thank you
Eran

 

Eran,

Sounds like it could be the same issue as I had. Take the new laptop, image it from your current backup file without using universal restore. Then reboot, and without removing the drive or letting it even try to boot to windows, make another backup image, again without universal restore. Restore this new backup image to the drive using TIB with UR, and the UR option should appear in the wizard menus this time. I believe it has something to do with changing drive letters and UR not being able to handle that, so it bypasses those screens.

I know it sounds odd and unnecessary, but it was what worked for me.

Let us know how it goes
-Chris

 

Thank you, Chris. yes - odd indeed but I will try and post my results.

Eran

 

IT WORKED!

Thank you very much, Chris. it makes some (though little) sense but this surely can be taken care of by Acronis. to me it looks like the product is of tremendous value as a hardware independant restore/deploy solution but it needs to be able to do it in one cycle, rather than the two you solved "our" problem with.

Thanks again, great help!

Eran

 

Eran,

Glad to hear it worked. You're right, this should be a simple tweak for them, presuming this Aleksandr character ever checks this thread again.

Scoring
Acronis support: 0
Acronis users: 2
-Chris

 

Hello Chris, Eran and Hans.

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I am sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that the reason you can note "force" Acronis Universal Restore window to appear during the restoration. If the Acronis True Image Bootable CD was created and Acronis Universal Restore option was added, the window of the Restore Backup Wizard which allows you to select "Use Acronis Universal Restore" or "Do not use Acronis Universal Restore" should apper when you boot your computer from Acronis True Image Bootable CD. The possible reasen why this windows does not apper is that Acronis Universal Restore did not recognize the operating system which you backed up. Therefore, without additional information it would be difficult to solve this issue.

Thus, I would recommend that you submit a request for technical support. Create Windows System Information on the computer you have backed up as it is described in Acronis Help Post. Please also answer the following questions:

- Did you back up entire hard drive or only system partition;

- Did you select to restore the entire hard drive or only system partition;

- What operation system is in the image archive that you try to restore?

Attach all the information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the issue appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Please note that Acronis Suport Team will provided you with a special version of Acronis Universal Restore to get the log for troubleshooting. I can not provide you with it via Forum for security reasons.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Hi Aleksandr,

2 of your 3 questions had already been answered in my 1st post:

Quote: "Hi, with ATI 3641 Server how can I use the Universal Restore feature? I've made an image from our W2003Server partition"

So I've backed up just this server partition and tried to restore this partition of our main server to my laptop (which is basically a clone of our main server with more or less identical layout of the hd).

I hope this helps.
BTW, you say that ATIUR can't be forced into action. Wouldn't that solve most of the problems here if I could choose if UR is needed or not instead of a largely nonfunctional, IMHO, 'automatic' action?

-Hans

 

Just for the record, the previous posters are not alone with this problem.

I backed up the system partition (C of a WinXP Pro SP2 system to a partition on a different HD in the same PC (E using TI EntServ 9.1 b3666.

copied the TIB image to an external USB HD

tried to restore the system partition on a different PC. UR did never kick in.
Tried Boot CDs made from builds 3666 and 3534, same problem

and, of course, the OS in the image is still WinXP SP2. Image verifies ok and mounts ok.

As long as TI can get confused, Acronis MUST HAVE a manual override to kick in UR.
Thanks, Chris, for the workaround. But the TI USB drivers work so slow on my target PC that a restore/backup/restore cycle takes several hours, so a one-step solution from Acronis would be highly appreciated.

tdklaus