Universal restore - how good is it ?

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by keevill, May 18, 2008.

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  1. keevill

    keevill Registered Member

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    I have tested the Universal restore function with a laptop installation and a pc installation. I set up a Compaq notebook and tried to use UR to use the image onto a Lenovo laptop and also onto a similar - but not totally identical Compaq notebook. Both failed with BSD on boot up.
    The pc image also failed onto another pc with different hardware. I also tried for good measure, to use the pc image onto the compaq laptop.
    All failed.
    How reliable or clever is the UR feature supposed to be ??
    Could I be doing something wrong ?
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    I only tried it as a test a few times - Image from a laptop restored to a desktop - and it worked.

    What version were you using? Did you get the option to add drivers?
     
  3. keevill

    keevill Registered Member

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    Thanks for your reply!
    I am using True Image Ent Server build 8076. Yes I did get the option to add drivers but since I did not have them, I did not .
    Is that the way one must do it ? Dig out the drivers and add them when doing the restore ?
    Not quite so convenient really if the target machine has unknown hardware .

    BTW, I have found that Vista is really good for finding and downloading the drivers provided of course that you can get the machine up and can get onto the internet.
     
  4. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    Yes, you have to have the drivers available during the UR process and add them in when given the opportunity. What I did, since my desktop already had a working OS on it was to use the free Driver Magician Lite to extract the drivers and store them on the same external drive that has the Image to be restored. For a brand name system, the supplied CD should have the drivers.

    A workaround that I tested, again only a couple times, is this: before you make the Image of, say, the laptop, change it's display driver to a generic vga type, then make the Image. Now restore this Image, (you then don't need UR), to your desktop or other laptop. It is usually the different display adapter that each system uses that makes a restore to different hardware need the correct driver to be added, but with a generic type in the Image, you should get a system to boot after a restore. Once you get the system to boot, you can then change the generic display adapter to the correct one to be able to use higher resolutions.

    Other drivers, like sound, modem, network, etc. will also have to be updated to the correct ones.
     
  5. arthurw

    arthurw Registered Member

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    Actually, DwnNdrty is referring to PnP drivers, and his prep suggestion is a good one.

    But remember: Universal Restore has nothing to do with plug 'n play drivers, which are handled by Windows and not UR or ATI.

    The main purpose of Universal Restore is - during the restore process - to slipstream in the low-level HAL^ drivers (below the NT Executive) for the storage controller/chipset on the new target hardware. Unless you've manually loaded them yourself into your old system before making the image, your old system obviously cannot and does not include the strorage controller drivers for the new hardware, and Acronis cannot manufacture them out of thin air and magically install them in your image. Universal Restore is a mighty smart way of getting the low-level drivers into your new system during the restore process, thereby ensuring your new system can boot up with an old system image.

    Universal Restore works well, and it's a life-saver for those who need to move to new hardware. I've used it on many systems, and it's never failed me once. HOWEVER (and it's a big however), you need to know what you're doing ... you need to know what the exact partition layout and numbering is on your source system and ensure the new system corresponds to the restored partition numbering on the new system. Check that there aren't hidden partitions on the old and new systems; if there are, ensure your operating system restores to the same partition number, or you won't boot.

    Keevill: if you don't tell True Image where the drivers are for your new hardware, how can Acronis True Image install them? Remember, these are not the plug 'n play drivers but the low-level storage and chipset drivers specific to your new hardware. I'm not aware of any sofware on earth that has an auto-driver-writer. For Acronis to maintain and ship a respository of all third-party drivers is an impossible task ... the installation file would be over 5GB in size, and need to be updated every week. It makes much more sense that you dig out your old installation CD and slipstream in the new drivers (storage, NB/SB, etc) for your new hardware. There really isn't a more feasible way of doing this and keep the product under $9000 a licence.
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2008
  6. mbrasil

    mbrasil Registered Member

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    Hi keevill...
    True Image + UR are reliable! Are you using latest version and build?
    I am using acronis echo workstation 9.5 b8076.
    I have used that many times and it works on 99%. The 1% that have failed is because i was tring to recovery an image from new hardware to an very, very oldest hardware. But many times when tring to recovery from new hardware to old hardware it will works.
    But the drivers you will need to install manually, because each hadware have different drivers.
    Regards!
    Marcelo
     
  7. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello keevill,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Corporate Disk Backup Software.

    We are sorry for delayed response.

    Please be aware that Acronis Universal Restore searches the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored) for HAL and mass storage device drivers and installs drivers that better fit the target hardware. You can specify a custom driver repository (a folder or folders on a network drive or CD) which will also be used for drivers search.
    The Windows default driver storage folder is determined in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\DevicePath. This storage folder is usually WINDOWS/inf.

    If the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as a SCSI, RAID, or Fibre Channel adapter) for the hard disk, you can install the appropriate driver manually, bypassing the automatic driver search-and-install procedure.

    For more details on Acronis Universal Restore, please see chapter 3.7 of Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server User's Guide

    Thank you.
    --
    Marat Setdikov
     
  8. arthurw

    arthurw Registered Member

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    Just to share a recent experience moving a Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 image to new hardware:

    ATIW+UR worked perfectly and restored the image. The system booted up, but shortly after log-in a RUNDLL32 error appeared and the RUNDLL32 was closed. This happened on every log-in on the new (target) machine.

    Here's the solution: the source machine had an nVidia graphics card with the latest nVidia drivers installed. The target machine had an ATi video card. The STARTUP config on the original machine loaded the nVidia drivers and apps.

    To fix the RUNDLL32 error on the target machine:

    * Go to msconfig (type msconfig in the Start>Run box and press Enter)
    * In the Startup tab, untick the nVidia drivers and tools to disable them at startup
    * Reboot the system
    * Voila! Target system runs flawlessly.
     
  9. tuttle

    tuttle Guest

    Clever! :thumb:
     
  10. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    I can't take credit for it though .... read it somewhere a loooooooong time ago. :D

    If anyone uses this method, the drivers for all other devices will have to be "updated" (modem, network card, sound card, etc.)
     
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