Pathetic Universal Restore Documentation

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by I'd Rather Be ..., Apr 21, 2006.

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  1. I'd Rather Be ...

    I'd Rather Be ... Registered Member

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    What is going on with this? I'm a long time Acronis customer who has been using True Image for a large variety of purposes for some time now, and was extremely excited about the new "universal restore" in 9.1 Server.

    Unfortunately, I've only gotten it to work once, and even though I've repeated those same exact steps, including on other brand new unboxed servers, I can't get it to work again. There basically is no documentation anywhere I can find that fully explains how the process is supposed to work.

    We're trying to move from some older Dell PowerEdge servers to some newer ones, and while I have tried pointing to every Dell driver under the Sun, in every possible way I can think of, these things just keep bluescreening every time they reboot.

    Ideally I'd like to be able to just point to a sharepoint of an already online and identical server that had Windows loaded manually, like say share out C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS as \DRIVERS$. Doesn't work. Neither does pointing at C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32, or pointing at the Dell Driver Disk, any and all combinations, whatever.

    WHAT SPECIFIC DRIVERS DOES THIS PROCESS REQUIRE?

    HAL.DLL?
    ACPI.SYS?
    RAID DRIVERS?
    OTHERS?

    DOES IT REQUIRE ASSOCIATED .INF FILES? DO THEY EVEN EXIST FOR WHAT IS REQUIRED?

    WHERE IS ANY OF THIS FULLY EXPLAINED?

    Sorry, but I'm quite irritated. This software has great potential, but unlike the standard TI software, so far it's been impossible to get any good out of it. Thanks for any help anyone is able to provide.
     
  2. jeremyotten

    jeremyotten Registered Member

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    The only things it need to boot is mass storage drivers that are not in windows itself.

    When you chose universal restore and you dindt provide any drivers he will prompt you for a driver when windows doesnt have one.

    work perfect! even restoring in vmware sessions works perfect!
     
  3. I'd Rather Be ...

    I'd Rather Be ... Registered Member

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    Not working for me, whether I manually specify the correct RAID driver location (directory or set of directories), or a specific driver, with or without .inf files. During restore, I still get "Cannot find driver for" stuff like ACPI.SYS, and instead of letting me manually point to it, I get three buttons: Ignore, Ingnore All, or Cancel. Cancel throws you out, press either Ignore you get "Operation has completed with Errors", then blue screens every time I reboot.

    How are you specifying the RAID drivers, the first choice where you list a directory, or the second option where you list the specific driver file (called "enforced")? Where are your driver files hosted, on a remote system, local floppy, etc? Are you having to include the .inf file, or just the .sys file, or some other file or combination?

    I haven't found anything that works, other than one time when I pointed to a remote server of exact make that was sharing it's C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS area. But that only worked once.
     
  4. I'd Rather Be ...

    I'd Rather Be ... Registered Member

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    One other thing to clarify, I can get the restore to go through sometimes where it seems to find every driver, never asks for anything else, but then when I try to boot, it blue screens every time.

    Going in through the recovery console and reading the ntbootlog file, it will have a lot of lines saying it was missing a long list of drivers that it couldn't find, all of which I had specified prior to restore.
     
  5. homer007

    homer007 Registered Member

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    I'm having similiar issues with universal restore. I've tried alot of different ways to get it to find the correct mass storage drivers, including placing them inside \windows\inf\ of the image, on a cdrom, network location, changing device path, etc... and each time it complains about being unable to find the correct driver, even when it is in the folder that I have directly pointed it to. It only gives me the option of ignore/ignore all/cancel if it is not found. This is using true image v3567 workstation with universal restore v1247 installed while running in windows . If do a universal restore from the acronis rescue CD though, I am given the option of selecting the driver if it is not found, which is nice since true image doesn't even appear to look for the drivers itself. I'd like to know why I am not given the option to select drivers while restoring from windows and why universal restore cannot seem to find any drivers on its own... :rolleyes:
     
  6. jeremyotten

    jeremyotten Registered Member

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    what are the stepts to get there and read the log?
     
  7. I'd Rather Be ...

    I'd Rather Be ... Registered Member

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    Use the Windows Disk, press F6 then specify the RAID driver (this requires it on a floppy), select repair, then recovery console. Takes you to a DOS prompt where you can move around, read and copy things. The log file will usually first say failing to find ACPI.SYS, even if I pointed to it. Then it will always say lots more failing further down.

    There's got to be some standard way for this to work, but I haven't found it yet. It seems to be some mixup with the .inf files, and the matching driver files, since they don't always reside in the same parent directory.

    If anyone has gotten this to work, or knows where there's better documentation, let us know please. Thanks..
     
  8. jeremyotten

    jeremyotten Registered Member

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    I can confirm that the second Universal Restore driver search on network drive DOES NOT WORK!
     
  9. beenthereb4

    beenthereb4 Registered Member

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    I would have to say that the topic title says it all. It may or may not work as intended, but it's impossible to be sure until the documentation is improved.
     
  10. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello I'd Rather Be,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

    Please download and install the latest build (3567) of Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows which is available in the Product Updates section of our web-site. The latest build of Acronis True Image contains the latest builf of Acronis Universal Restore.

    If the problem persists with the latest build, could you please boot your target computer from the bootable rescue media and create Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post?

    Please also provide the exact model and vendor of your RAID controllers.

    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. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

    Thank you.
    --
    Tatyana Tsyngaeva
     
  11. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello homer007,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Workstation Disk Backup Software.

    Could you please provide us with the detailed information on the problem? Please describe your actions step-by step.

    Please create Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) of the target computer as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

    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. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

    Thank you.
    --
    Tatyana Tsyngaeva
     
  12. zapps

    zapps Registered Member

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    Atleast you guys can run the damn thing, my attempt does not even get as far as the Universal Restore option during the restore wizard.

    Acronis told me that there is a 'Rare' occassion when the UR does not recognise that the partition being restored contains OS and I happen to have hit that 'Rare' spot, how annoying. Solution is to wait for the fix.
     
  13. gstadig

    gstadig Registered Member

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    Where do you pick-up the universal restore option?
    I have it installed, but i don't see it in the interface at all

    I am backing up Win2k and trying restore to new hardware.

    I can back-up and restore but of course i get bogus image restores because of the odd hardware, I can't see where during restore or back-up where the universal restore is optioned on / off or has any settings.
     
  14. homer007

    homer007 Registered Member

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    When you go to restore the image you should get the option to use universal restore in a dialogue just before actually commiting to restoring; basically it gives you the option to use/don't use universal restore, asks you for forced drivers, etc, and then it does the restore and tries to install drivers afterwards.
     
  15. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I watched a demonstration of AUR. One computer was imaged with TI and the image was restored to three completely different computers without invoking AUR. Only one booted. The image was then restored using AUR and all three computers booted and proceeded to install their respective hardware, without user intervention. It was most impressive.

    All computers had IDE HDs. In the two windows asking for driver locations, we just clicked "Next".
     
  16. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello gstadig,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please note that in order to be able to use Acronis Universal Restore plug-in you should create Acronis True Image Bootable Media and add this plug-in to this Media. After that you will be able to boot the target computer into Acronis recovery environment from this bootable media, start the recovery procedure. Additional information can be found in the User Guide for the respective product.

    Thank you.
    --
    Aleksandr Isakov
     
  17. ExploreIT

    ExploreIT Registered Member

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    We are having the same problems in our company.

    We have a Dell PowerEdge 2600 image and are trying to get it onto a PE 2500.

    The documentation is very skimpy.

    We have downloaded the RAID driver that is used to create an 'F6 floppy' for use at OS install and have forced the UR feature to use these but still we get Blue Screen on boot.

    We are very keen to see this product work as described because we think there is a massive market for this product. but only if it works without messing about for hours!! The whole point of image restore is that it should be fast and simple!!!

    Ian
     
  18. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Just another comment which may not be relevant. We did the image and restores from ReatogoXPE with the Mustang TI plugin.
     
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