Universal restore not working?

Hello, I just recently purchased TI 9.1 server for windows and universal restore. I created an image of a windows 2003 server with an 80gb drive 12gb of the drive used. I am trying to restore that onto an older dell desktop with a 40gb drive using the restore media with universal restore option. The data successfully restores, but when I try to boot I get this error:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
I verified the disk is working, I was able to format it fine with 2003 cd. With universal restore you are supposed to be able to restore an image of any machine with any hardware. Am I missing something?
Thanks.

Phil

 

Unfortunately, you're not the only one having this problem. My guess is that you are having the same issue as am I -- you never get prompted for the drivers on your new destination system, right?

The instructions for Universal Restore are SO HORRIBLE -- that I didn't even know it would be prompting me for drivers. I just happened to stumble across that (quite significant) piece of information in another post in this forum.

You'd think that when you shell out $1000 for software -- it would work as advertised...especially server-class products and have accurate and thorough documentation.

There is some indication in other threads that, if you submit a problem report to Acronis support, they will send you a build (not yet posted for general download) that is suppossed to correct this problem.

 

Well I found one thing I was doing wrong, I was just grabbing the NTFS partition and not the FAT partition that Dell creates. So I made an image of the entire disk and then chose to restore the entire disk. Restore successful. I no longer the the windows disk errors, BUT my machine is now stuck in an infinite loop. Right after the dell screen, the screen goes black and I see a message flash up about the resolution and then it reboots again. I even tried safe mode but it does the same exact thing. Im guessing the video driver is not installed, but I never get prompted for anything about drivers. Yes the reason I paid $1000 was for this to work without having to worry about drivers.

 

Hey guys, quick question. If you start a restore in Windows, do you come to the attached screen?

You should also see this screen when doing a restore from the Recovery CD. If you choose to use UR, the next screen will prompt you to add drivers. Only mass storage drivers are needed to get you into Windows. You can take care of the rest of the missing drivers later.

If you don't see this screen during a recovery from the Linux based Recovery CD, you can try using BartPE with my plugin. There's no guarantee it will work. The problem with the missing UR screen seems to be hardware dependent. Nobody in the forum has figured out what hardware works and what doesn't. For that matter, it would seem that Acronis hasn't figured it out either.

 

I definitely do not see that screen, never have.

 

It seems to come up on my Dell laptop under XP when using v3854, but not under version 3886.

Very strange.

 

Hi silver0066,

That's not good. I had hoped Acronis would have made UR better in the new build, instead of worse. UR is such a great idea. It's too bad Acronis is having so much trouble getting it to be reliable. It's very hard to understand why it doesn't even attempt to run on certain hardware.

What type of processor does you Dell laptop have? Is it a single or dual core processor? Do you get the same results when you run build 3886 from the Linux CD and from BartPE with my plugin? If it works with the Linux CD and not from BartPE, try disabling ura.exe in my plugin. You can disable it by going to \PRE\Include and editing AutoRun0_StartAcrSvc.cmd. Put a semicolon in front of the line "call %SystemRoot%\system32\ura.exe". Let me know if that helps.

 

No. I do not see that screen (on the server product). UR works as expected on the workstation product.

 

The Dell laptop has a 2.1 Ghz single Intel processor. I have the same results from Linux as I do with BartPe. No problem if I restore an XP system, only when restoring a Vista system.

I am tied up for a few days, but since I have pretty much gone back to XP (Vista is just too cumbersome and has many driver problems at the moment) it is pretty much a mute point to me right now. I will keep my eye on this forum to see if any progress has been made by Acronis. If it was not for the Universal Restore feature, I would be experimenting with other imaging programs.

The Acronis support and management is just a bit too slow at the switch for my tastes.

Thanks for all of your help. Acronis should put you on their payroll.

 

Hi silver0066,

At least they seem to have the Linux and Windows version in sync now.

I hear you. I've completely given up any thoughts of ever switching over to Vista. The bad far outweighs the good. In fact, where's the good?

 

I used Vista for about 3 months constantly. I even switched over to it as my main system. I could boot back and forth between XP and Vista using First Defense. I had my data on a separate drive so I could use either system as I wished.

Vista was kind of fun at first with the new graphics and the way the menus responded. The UAC feature gets in your way constantly, it has no memory, and after awhile it gets very irritating, but I put up with it as it is a good security feature. Finally, I just got tired of it. I did not want to turn if off.

So, now, after 3 months, I have gone back to XP. The speed, flexiblility and useability are a joy to use after Vista.

I have all of the same Visuals using a free program called Vista Transformation Pack 6. It even has Aero and the taskbar popups. The only thing missing is the 3D task manager, which is fun, but not very useful.

I have just as good security, if not better, using DropMyRights in IE and Outlook and NoScript in Firefox along with NOD 32, Prevx1 and standard XP firewall. I use RollbackRx and FirstDefense along with Acronis.

Sorry for the ramble, lots of coffee.

Anyway, Acronis has the potential for a great product. I don't understand what is going on at that company. Just take a look at the Acronis Forums in Wilders as compared to some of the others. There is hardly ever a comment from an employee and it seems that their software has far too many problems.

This has been going on for years. You would think that someone in headquarters would take the time to read these forums, and do something about their Quality Control.

Silver

 

Hi silver0066,

Sad, but true.

I did true off UAC in Vista. The problem is that it pops up a security warning in the system tray every time you boot up. They just won't leave you alone.

 

Hallo all,

Do I understand properly?
Can one not restore with Universally Restore my system and integrate at the same time the drivers? With me it likewise does not go. The option like the picture on top describes does not exist.
Must I activate Universally Restore only in the program?
I know the mustang Plugin for BartPE, but it is the same like universal? Is mustang altrenative to Univresal Restore? Is there an alternative?

Lobel

 

Hi Lobel.

The Acronis Recovery CD runs under Linux and uses a Linux version of TreueImage.exe. The mustang BartPE plugin uses the same version of TrueImage.exe that runs under normal Windows. If you don't see the Universal Restore screen when you run a recovery under normal Windows, you won't see that screen with BartPE either.

There is no alternative because we don't understand why this is happening. Many people are reporting the same problem. Unfortunately, you're just out of luck. The only hope is that Acronis will solve the problem in a future build.

 

What is actually the task and function of mustang?
Maybe I can use mustang to solve my problem.

 

Hi Lobel,

It will not solve your Universal Restore problem. You need to complain to Acronis support.

 

Hi everyone,

I work for a software company and we've been using UR extensively to deploy machines. It works 99% of the time. It could use some improvements but to answer your questions:

the UR screen shows up if you deploy to a system with different hardware. You also have to image your original machine with UR, as non-UR image will not work.

Hope that helps, let me know if you got any questions.

 

I can understand why this feature is error prone. It's a pretty significant challenge to do this, and is very much a matter of getting all of the details right. If just one single element is missed the entire solution falls apart (the restored OS won't boot).

I've had no succes using Acronis' Universal Restore feature, nor have I had any success using Symantec's Restore Anywhere. Perhaps my experience is the exception, but I have been testing this stuff on fairly common Dell/HP/IBM machines, so I suspect my results aren't outliers. It'll be interesting to see where these companies go with their implementations of this feature. I suspect they need to go back to the drawing board and completely redesign.

Raleigh has been having good experiences with UR, so maybe there's just one or two little (yet critical) issues that are affecting some users and not others.

 

Have you tried using it with Vista? It does not work. The UR option will not even come up, even though I have done all that you suggested.

 

Vista is a whole different animal. The way that works for me to do a universal restore with Vista is to sysprep it, shut down and then image from the boot disk. Acronis Universal Restore is not needed. (If you are planning to restore to machines that do not have a storage driver included in Vista, you must inject the driver) Vista's sysprep creates a "universal system" as opposed to the old sysprep for XP.

 

Thanks, I will try that if I can figure out how to do it.

I am not familiar with sysprep. Is it a special program that I can download? Is there one for Vista?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Silver