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Youri Carma
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Good News for us Tweakers: Acronis Universal Restore
Migration from RAID too another Non-Raid HD is possible!
What is Acronis Universal Restore?
The most obvious way of cloning a Windows system is to deploy its image to a different computer.However, the deployment will not be a success if the target hardware is incompatible with the most critical drivers included into the image. The restored system may turn unbootable because startup drivers and components, used by the source system, cannot operate on a different motherboard, processor etc.
Note
Using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) does not solve this problem, because Sysprep can replace drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). As for system HAL and boot device driver, they must be identical in the source and target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and 216915).
Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system restoration by replacing the crucial HAL and hard disk controller drivers.
Note
Acronis Universal Restore does not conflict with Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep). If you got accustomed to using Sysprep, you can use both tools on the same system.
Acronis Universal Restore is an optional program feature. It should be purchased separately and installed from a separate .msi setup file. Acronis Universal Restore can only be installed on a computer where at least one of the following Acronis components is installed:
Acronis True Image Agent for Windows
Acronis True Image (local version)
Bootable Media Builder.
How to use
You can perform the following procedure either locally or remotely, using Acronis True Image Management Console.
Boot the target computer into Acronis recovery environment from the bootable media, or RIS server, or using F11.
Start the recovery procedure and select the image of the source computer for restoration.
You can specify Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and hard disk controller drivers to be used by the restored system and/or provide a path to a driver repository on the network.Hence, Acronis Universal Restore uses three sources for drivers search: the list of user-specified (enforced) drivers, driver repository, and the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored). The program will find the most suitable drivers of all available and install them into the restored system. However, the user-defined drivers will have the priority. They will be installed, with appropriate warning, even if the program finds the better driver.The Windows default driver storage folders are determined in the registry key SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Current version -> DevicePath. Generally, it is WINDOWS/inf folder.
You can optionally disable Plug and Play setup after applying Acronis Universal Restore.Acronis Universal Restore relies on built-in plug-and-play discovery and configuration process to handle hardware differences in devices that are not critical for the system start, such as video, audio, USB. Windows takes control over this process during the logon phase, and if some of the new hardware is not detected, you will have a chance to install drivers for it later manually. However, in most situations to make servers operational ASAP the administrator does not need video/audio/USB drivers. Disabling the plug-and-play configuration will reduce the system start procedure to booting Windows and configuring network cards.
When the restore process runs Acronis True Image will:
- detect the machine type and install appropriate driver for HAL
- detect IDE and SCSI controllers and install appropriate drivers. If no appropriate drivers are found in all three above sources, the user will be prompted to browse the following locations for the drivers: (Network share drive, Floppy disk, CD drive)
The machine reboots.
Windows takes control and initiates the usual first-start process.
Note
The recovery procedure can proceed under Windows as well (for example, if the operating system is loaded from the C: drive, the system partition of the other computer can be restored from an image to the D: drive). In this case, the user prompt for driver search on Network-Floppy-CD will not be issued. If a compatible driver cannot be found, Windows will suggest to ignore it or cancel restoration.
Using Acronis Universal Restore in virtual environment
Virtual machine technologies provide a powerful tool to help accelerate the development, testing, deployment and support of PC applications.
Using Acronis True Image Enterprise Server/ Workstation with Acronis Universal Restore you can perform real-to-virtual and virtual-to-real computer migration in the same way as with real systems.If the virtual hard drive uses SCSI controller, you should provide appropriate drivers while performing system restore to the virtual machine. For example, the widespread VMware environment requires Buslogic or LSI logic drivers. Use drivers bundled with your virtual machine software or download the latest drivers versions from the software manufacturer website.
Hints on using Acronis Universal Restore
The system recovered by Acronis Universal Restore may not start if the partition structure in the image or the target disk partitioning does not coincide with that of the source disk. As a result, the loader, restored from the image, will point to the wrong partition and the system will not boot or will malfunction.Such might be the case if you:
- image not the entire source disk, but only the selected partitions. Keep in mind, that the source disk may have a hidden maintenance partition created by the computer vendor. Therefore, if you check each partition for backup instead of checking the disk, this hidden partition will not be included into the image.
- restore not the entire source disk, but only the selected partitions. In some cases, especially if your system resides on other than the first partition, this can confuse the loader and prevent the restored system from startup
- image the system residing on the RAID array and restore the system to a RAID array with different configuration.
To avoid the problem, we recommend that you image and restore the entire system disk and use the identical RAID configuration on the source and the target computer.
As appears from the above, a bootable system migration from RAID to HDD and vise versa is impossible.
When migrating from RAID to RAID, be sure to provide an appropriate driver for the RAID controller, otherwise a basic HDD driver will be installed.
Acronis Universal Restore option is not available when restoring dynamic disks and volumes.
Benefits
Acronis Universal Restore can be used "after the fact": it is not necessary to create an image with the option, you can restore any image to different hardware.
Acronis Universal Restore allows the user to exactly specify drivers during restore, enabling their maximum compatibility with the hardware.
Acronis Universal Restore does not strip security identifier (SID) and user profile settings. This means that you will not need to re-join your domain or re-map network user profiles after a restore.
Acronis Universal Restore supports a driver repository to centrally store all drivers so users do not need to go looking for them.
Migration from RAID too another Non-Raid HD is possible!
What is Acronis Universal Restore?
The most obvious way of cloning a Windows system is to deploy its image to a different computer.However, the deployment will not be a success if the target hardware is incompatible with the most critical drivers included into the image. The restored system may turn unbootable because startup drivers and components, used by the source system, cannot operate on a different motherboard, processor etc.
Note
Using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) does not solve this problem, because Sysprep can replace drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). As for system HAL and boot device driver, they must be identical in the source and target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and 216915).
Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system restoration by replacing the crucial HAL and hard disk controller drivers.
Note
Acronis Universal Restore does not conflict with Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep). If you got accustomed to using Sysprep, you can use both tools on the same system.
Acronis Universal Restore is an optional program feature. It should be purchased separately and installed from a separate .msi setup file. Acronis Universal Restore can only be installed on a computer where at least one of the following Acronis components is installed:
Acronis True Image Agent for Windows
Acronis True Image (local version)
Bootable Media Builder.
How to use
You can perform the following procedure either locally or remotely, using Acronis True Image Management Console.
Boot the target computer into Acronis recovery environment from the bootable media, or RIS server, or using F11.
Start the recovery procedure and select the image of the source computer for restoration.
You can specify Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and hard disk controller drivers to be used by the restored system and/or provide a path to a driver repository on the network.Hence, Acronis Universal Restore uses three sources for drivers search: the list of user-specified (enforced) drivers, driver repository, and the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored). The program will find the most suitable drivers of all available and install them into the restored system. However, the user-defined drivers will have the priority. They will be installed, with appropriate warning, even if the program finds the better driver.The Windows default driver storage folders are determined in the registry key SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Current version -> DevicePath. Generally, it is WINDOWS/inf folder.
You can optionally disable Plug and Play setup after applying Acronis Universal Restore.Acronis Universal Restore relies on built-in plug-and-play discovery and configuration process to handle hardware differences in devices that are not critical for the system start, such as video, audio, USB. Windows takes control over this process during the logon phase, and if some of the new hardware is not detected, you will have a chance to install drivers for it later manually. However, in most situations to make servers operational ASAP the administrator does not need video/audio/USB drivers. Disabling the plug-and-play configuration will reduce the system start procedure to booting Windows and configuring network cards.
When the restore process runs Acronis True Image will:
- detect the machine type and install appropriate driver for HAL
- detect IDE and SCSI controllers and install appropriate drivers. If no appropriate drivers are found in all three above sources, the user will be prompted to browse the following locations for the drivers: (Network share drive, Floppy disk, CD drive)
The machine reboots.
Windows takes control and initiates the usual first-start process.
Note
The recovery procedure can proceed under Windows as well (for example, if the operating system is loaded from the C: drive, the system partition of the other computer can be restored from an image to the D: drive). In this case, the user prompt for driver search on Network-Floppy-CD will not be issued. If a compatible driver cannot be found, Windows will suggest to ignore it or cancel restoration.
Using Acronis Universal Restore in virtual environment
Virtual machine technologies provide a powerful tool to help accelerate the development, testing, deployment and support of PC applications.
Using Acronis True Image Enterprise Server/ Workstation with Acronis Universal Restore you can perform real-to-virtual and virtual-to-real computer migration in the same way as with real systems.If the virtual hard drive uses SCSI controller, you should provide appropriate drivers while performing system restore to the virtual machine. For example, the widespread VMware environment requires Buslogic or LSI logic drivers. Use drivers bundled with your virtual machine software or download the latest drivers versions from the software manufacturer website.
Hints on using Acronis Universal Restore
The system recovered by Acronis Universal Restore may not start if the partition structure in the image or the target disk partitioning does not coincide with that of the source disk. As a result, the loader, restored from the image, will point to the wrong partition and the system will not boot or will malfunction.Such might be the case if you:
- image not the entire source disk, but only the selected partitions. Keep in mind, that the source disk may have a hidden maintenance partition created by the computer vendor. Therefore, if you check each partition for backup instead of checking the disk, this hidden partition will not be included into the image.
- restore not the entire source disk, but only the selected partitions. In some cases, especially if your system resides on other than the first partition, this can confuse the loader and prevent the restored system from startup
- image the system residing on the RAID array and restore the system to a RAID array with different configuration.
To avoid the problem, we recommend that you image and restore the entire system disk and use the identical RAID configuration on the source and the target computer.
As appears from the above, a bootable system migration from RAID to HDD and vise versa is impossible.
When migrating from RAID to RAID, be sure to provide an appropriate driver for the RAID controller, otherwise a basic HDD driver will be installed.
Acronis Universal Restore option is not available when restoring dynamic disks and volumes.
Benefits
Acronis Universal Restore can be used "after the fact": it is not necessary to create an image with the option, you can restore any image to different hardware.
Acronis Universal Restore allows the user to exactly specify drivers during restore, enabling their maximum compatibility with the hardware.
Acronis Universal Restore does not strip security identifier (SID) and user profile settings. This means that you will not need to re-join your domain or re-map network user profiles after a restore.
Acronis Universal Restore supports a driver repository to centrally store all drivers so users do not need to go looking for them.