Problem: Universal Restore from Dell PE 2650 to Dell PE 2950

Dear Forum, plz help.

I desperately need to restore a Dell PE 2650 image to a Dell PE 2950.
This is what I have done.

I have used ATI Echo ES and UR to restore a Dell 2650 to a Dell 2950 using a Dell PERC5i during the restore. Right near the end of the restore, Acronis and UR ask for a ACPI driver.

Q: would UR not be smart enough to use HAL to load that ACPI driver for me.

I continue and skipped that driver. The restore completed.

The Dell 2950 boots into Windows. But then it started to as for driver for PCI bridge and all sorts. My Dell Build DVD has drivers all over, and I do not know which ones to start. I managed to install the new video card and NIC card, but the system drivers are completely wrong, as they are of the Dell 2650.

I suspected it is the chipset drivers, but Dell/Intel does not provide the chipset drivers.

I have another Dell 2950, which I then use the Dell build DVD to install the OS, which is Windows 2000. So I have two Dell 2950s, a DIRTY one and a CLEAN one.

I then compare the DIRTY to the CLEAN 2950 with their System Drivers from the restored 2950 to a clean install 2950, and they look different, especially the Intel 5000x chipset drivers, and PCI Bridge drivers.

I then used Driver Genius to backup the drivers from the CLEAN 2950, and restore them into the DIRTY 2950.

The DIRTY 2950 boots into WIndows OK, then after login, it sits at a black screen.

Please help me in getting the 2650 image work on the Dell 2950 hardware.

 

I was actually going to suggest using something like Driver Genius to get the 2950 drivers. Try doing over the Restore with UR on the dirty 2950, but this time have the 2950 drivers that you saved with DG where it is accessible when you are in the window where you Add drivers with UR.

 

I got it to work.
This is how I did it.

1. Used Driver Genius to backup all the drivers from the CLEAN 2950 into an self-installer exe.
2. Restored the 2650 image to the DIRTY 2950 with UR pointing to the right mass storage controller
3. Rebooted the DIRTY 2950 and logged into the OS.
4. Immediately restored the Driver Genius drivers set form the CLEAN 2950, one by one. By the process of elimination, I found that the Logical Disk Manager was the driver that would crash the DIRTY Dell 2950.
5. So I redid everything, and restored the drivers from the CLEAN 2950, minus the LDM and everything works fine. The 2650 image already came with a LDM driver.

So in summary, I solved by problem by not re-installing the LDM driver. I invetsigated a bit more on the LDM and apparently in a Dell PE in WIndows 2000 Server OS, the LDM is installed but disabled. It is replaced by the Dell Array Manager. So if I restored the LDM driver and effectively enable it the Dell Array Manager would not like it.

Question for the forum: Would this work?
1. On the Clean 2950, use Driver Genius to backup all the drivers into a folder. This folder will have subfolders of specific driver and INF files.
2. When restore, I point UR to this folder.
3. When retore, UR find a unknown device, it will auto search this folder and locate the right driver for me?

All this so I can avoid doing this after the restore.

 

Calvin I am glad it worked out for you.
I started to think that your method is sort of defeating the purpose of having Acronis UR as you need another similar (2950) hardware to get going.

Do you still see any errors in the DIRTY 2950?

With regards to your questions, I think it will work normally but not in your case because your 2650 image will always load Dell Array Manager and your DIRTY 2950 will try to load the LDM.

Thomas' method may work
http://cheelam.com/blog/2009/04/01/acronis-true-image-universal-restore-problems/