Universal Restore Driver Process

How to?
Universal Restore (UR), needs .inf files + ?
Do I have to point to a gizillion of them, or is there an easier way?
Do I copy the INF dir from the PC's dir that has files needed for the restore?
Do I copy the whole Windows, System32, Drivers dir?
I cannot seem to locate a simple, one stop shop procedure documented anywhere, I've had the product for quite some time now, and cannot seem to find a way to use Universal Restore in a simple, plain, cut and dry way, without spending gobs of time pointing to .INF files and awaiting for a "Enumerating Devices" screen to finish.
I read all posts here, no dinifinitive answer as to THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE, BLACK AND WHITE, YEA AND NO, with EXAMPLES.

Does anything exist from anyone as to how to use the add on?

If I pay for the 'support' option at time of purchase, does it give me more specific solutions to questions, answers, etc., rather than 'shoot from the hip' examples and experiences by users via a forum, with an answer every now and then from an Acronis moderator?

I really like the produce (TI 9.1), but I can never seen to utilize it to it's fullest potential.

Please, can anyone give me specific procedures as to how to use what for universal restore??

 

What works for me is to use a third party program that will pull the installed drivers from a system. I have these drivers available to the Universal Restore program so the drivers I want can be installed when using UR. But the drivers still have to be manually checked one by one during the UR process.

 

Do you mean a program like Driver Genius or Driver Magician?

Do you then put the drivers in separate folders on an external drive?

Do you manually check each folder or file before the Recovery takes place?

Many thanks for any detailed help. I have had this program since it came out and have never found any clear instructions regarding the driver procedures.

 

Let us know if it works.

 

OK, this is kewl, but I do have a few questions then.

If using these 3rd party programs (Driver Magician, Driver Genius), do they need to be installed & used to "grab" the drivers from the source PC before deploying the image to a different (dissimilar hardware) PC, or as another example, taking an image from PC "X", and deploying it to PC "Y", drivers would be required from "X" to work on "Y", and these 3rd party programs do that, right? Otherwise, how does one get the required drivers needed from PC "X" to PC "Y", if they are dissimilar?

Is this the only way? If it works, then great, but I fell a tad let down, as it is in no way specified, documented, or otherwise conveyed to the end user that "in order to use Universal Restore, you do this & that, and get your drivers from a process not specified within these directions".

Then, as stated here in these replies, each driver has to be made available one at a time, so the "Enumerating" message takes approximately how long for each driver? Which drivers (all?) need to be made available? Is there a 'method' to make (let's use an example) a "Universal Restore Drive Disk or Folder" for a Dell 8100, Dell 8200, Dell 8300, Dell 5150, Dell 9200, Dell Inspirion XXX, and so on, making each hardware platform a separate folder on a CD or Folder on an accessible location, and then just point to it during a restore session?

So as not to be accused of sounding condescending (but just rather confused and disappointed), all of these things that may be required are no where specified or documented in a product that is being sold, with no indications or procedures from a manufacturer selling a product?

I'm even more confused.

 

You're right that the process of collecting the drivers isn't clearly spelled out. The drivers you need are the ones for the destination system. The most important one is video display driver.
In fact you can use another workaround - before you make the image on the source computer, change the display driver to a generic type, 16 color, it will, of course, look like crap. When this backup image is restored on another system it should at least boot up with the generic driver, but you will then have to install the correct driver for whatever video card is on that system, plus drivers for all the other devices that are different on the "new" system.
Still another workaround is using Microsoft's Sysprep. I've never tried this one though.
But using Driver Magician and True Image with UR is easier - once you know how to use them

 

So....I installed both items (Driver Magician, Driver Genius), and played a little.
I did not do a 'real life' backup and Universal Restore to dissimilar hardware....but rather just became familiar with the Driver Magician, Driver Genius programs.

For the most part, in Driver Magician, the program states: "The above is all the drivers in your computer,the red ones are not contained in Microsoft Windows, so you should back them up.The others are packaged within Windows operating system and are automatically installed when detected by it, therefore it is NOT necessary to back them up."

I'll assume that this means that any XP image (as an example) will be installed and not have necessary drivers crash or blue screen a Universal restore procedure, and upon providing necessary drivers via Universal Restore at time of recovering an image (for non-Microsoft drivers), any Microsoft drives will either be available via the restored OS or an i386 dir or it will prompt for the original CD?

It all sounds so slick when the advertising touts the feature (Universal Restore), but all so disappointing when one has to jump through hoops not only to understand how it works, but just to get the basic functionality, and then rely upon other users discussing their trials and tribulations on forums as to how to make it work.

It might sound like I'm talking in circles, but I'm dizzy with information overload to get this product to work, and to understand it.

The top, most important feature on any PC today is to get the end user to fully understand the need for a backup, and how to use the software.

I'm an IT guy, and if I get stumped and confused, what about the poor consumer?

The rules here say I cannot quote any e-mails, and I'd like to, but cannot, as the answer from customer support stinks, the level of understanding is limited, and I sure wish it would get better.

 

I like Driver Magician since it has those color codes to tell you which drivers are part of XP and which are not. In fact I use the free version - Driver Magician Lite.
Just save the ones that are not included in XP on a drive that you can make available to the UR process.

 

Hello guruuno,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Corporate Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that, as explained in the User's Guide, the principles of Acronis Universal Restore:

Therefore, Acronis Universal Restore itself only requires mass storage controller's drivers, which are usually supplied with the computer/device, or can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. All other drivers will be installed by Windows operating system at first boot on the new hardware.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

That is the way I have tried it in the past with mixed results. Intermittent problems with mouse and keyboard, etc. I got around it by rebooting a couple of times and when I could get to Explorer, I was able to launch the AutoRestoreDriver.exe file which is a complete one file backup of all of the Drivers from Driver Genius. I think Driver Magician has the same capability.

DwnNdrty has a method that sounds good, but according to the above quote from Acronis Support, will not work. I have not tried it yet.

Has anyone tried this method?