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Universal restore complete - computer won't boot

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I completed the Universal Restore from comp A to comp B by following the detailed instructions and the process completed but the computer will not boot. I have a feeling that this is what is causing this as stated below form the instructions:

"You have drivers for motherboard or chipset drivers for the new computer. If you have a specific hard drive controller such as SAS, RAID or SCSI, you also need to download drivers for them. These drivers are critical for booting the operating system. You can download the drivers on the Vendor's web-site. Please note, if you downloaded the drivers in *.exe, *.cab, *.zip format, you should extract them first. The driver files should have the *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions."

I am restoring to a Dell D610 lat top and I down loaded the chipset driver file and added it to a USB drive and provided the path to the this drive in the recovery setup. But the file extensions .inf, *.sys or *.oem don't seem to be there, ther are exe and zip files..

How do I obtain the .inf, *.sys or *.oem file extensions.

That question was not addressed in the instructions.

Thanks for any input.

Don

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Can you use WinZIP or WinRAR to uncompress the driver files, and get them in the .inf, .sys format

I uncompressed the chipset driver file with Winzip and under a Windows folder the XP32 and XP64 options there are some sys and inf files. I copied the entire uncompressed file to a USB drive and inserted in in Comp B. I started the recovery again and included a path to the USB down to the Windows folder. After completing recovery, still will not Boot, the dell screen come up and then goes to a blank screen with a cursor blinking in the upper left corner of the screen. The cursor is inactive and just blinks.

Don

OK, this is most likely a boot BIOS issue or an MBR issue.
Does the BIOS detect the disk correctly?

Is your BIOS correctly set up to boot from that disk?

Did you include the MBR+track0 in the recovery, as well as the disk signature, BTW, although that last point has nothing to do with the problem at hand.

Just happening to be scanning posts, and came to this one. It would seem a no-brainer that someone wanting to restore to another computer would want everything included to make the new HDD work just like the old one. Why are there so many options for this? I would think the task is pretty much straight forward. I have used many different backup and restore programs that never had to ask what you want included. They just restored the backup so that the restored system worked. It seems like Acronis is WAY over thinking this thing.

The most we should have to do is call Micro$oft to get a new OS key for the new hardware.

David,

The reason is that it is hard to take into account all the possible scenarios... For example, if you could only recover entire disks, you could lose new partitions you have created since the last backup.

Well no, if it is not in the backup file, you cannot restore it, but since ATI lets you recover only selected partitions, you have to way not to delete a partition that you created after the backup.
Backup day: Partition C:\
Day+1: user creates Partition D:\ and move content there
Day+2: user restores backup. If the user restores the entire disk, D:\ is deleted and content is lost.

Ok, you got me really confused here. If the entire disk is restored, isn't the other D:\ partition still on the old C:\ drive? I don't understand how it gets deleted. If the D:\ partition is still on the old drive, can't the partition be re-created on the new drive, and simply copy the content from the old D:\ one to the new D:\ one?

But if the partition D:\ is not part of the backup file, and the old drive crashed, the D:\ partition is lost anyway.

I'm not getting how anything is deleted during the restore process. It might not be restored because it's not part of the backup file, but it's not deleted either.

BTW, sorry for hijacking this thread.

No, I have not. But here is what I would do.

The new computer probably comes with an OS already installed, and it booted just fine from the manufacturer. So, I would just re-install all my programs after putting the new computer back to the way it was received, including Acronis, and then open the backup file on the backup drive, and copy any data files from that to the appropriate program folders on the new computer. Restore only serves to "muddy the water" on the new computer anyway.

But wait for other advice as well to get more information for what you want to do.

Pat L wrote:

OK, this is most likely a boot BIOS issue or an MBR issue.
Does the BIOS detect the disk correctly?

Is your BIOS correctly set up to boot from that disk?

Did you include the MBR+track0 in the recovery, as well as the disk signature, BTW, although that last point has nothing to do with the problem at hand.

I am not sure what a "boot BIOS issue or an MBR issue" is.

Yes the bios is set up to boot from the installed hard drive.

Here is what I received in an email on this issue from Acronis Support:

You will need download the drivers for Chip-set, NIC, and Mass storage for the target machine, where you wish to perform the recovery. Also please note, that these drivers will be in *.exe format; you must extract them, as Universal Restore accepts drivers in *.OEM, *.SYS, or *.INF formats.

For further assistance, please feel free to contact us. I will keep this case open till it is resolved to your satisfaction.

Best regards,
Tulsi Saha
Support Professional
Acronis Customer Central

I can find on the dell site for my computer the chipset drive, but not sure about the "NIC, and Mass storage" drives. The available drive categories are:

Application, Audio, Bios, Chipset, Communications, Diagnosis, Input, Network, System Util, Video.

There are 19 drivers between the categories. What category would NIC and Mass Storage be in.

Thanks

Don

Network for NIC and Chipset for Mass storage.

Pat L wrote:

Network for NIC and Chipset for Mass storage.

OK created a file of just the inf and sys extenions of all of the drivers in Network and Chipset. Rebooted from Acronics bootable disk and went through the step by step instruction and Indicated the path to the driver file.

Sorry to say the same results, computer will not boot. I give up.

Don

Don,

Universal Restore is not a sure thing. ATI has to figure out what drivers are necessary for that computer and edit the registry as it is being restored. It is still the best thing to try short of a complete fresh installation.

Is it possible that your computer has different disk controllers (for example for a RAID or eSata interface)?