Using Plus Pack to restore to dissimilar hardware

I just performed the same operation. I provided the path to the new drivers but I don't think it loaded all of them as I had to go through and loaded them manually after the re-boot. I think the biggest thing that Universal Restore does is abstract the hardware layer so the system will boot successfully on a new motherboard. I haven't found that it loads all the drivers (which you can do after the restart) but it prevents the ole BSOD if you just restore to a new system.

In summary, while I had to load drivers after the fact, it definitely allowed me to migrate to a new motherboard and CPU with a very minimal effort. It went like a charm!

Thank you for your very helpful response. In other words, I simply provide the path to the collection of drivers without having to specify which ones should be used, and Universal Restore takes what it needs to boot the system successfully on the new motherboard. And we're talking about chipset drivers here?

That's exactly what I did. I specified a path to the chipset drivers when I did the restore. Again, I ended up installing them afterwards anyway, which was OK. All I wanted to be able to do was boot the system with the new motherboard and CPU. After that, I really didn't care if I spent 15 minutes loading new drivers.

I did verify that it was Universal Restore that allowed the process to work. In other words, I tried restoring twice WITHOUT using Universal Restore and I got a BSOD both times; couldn't boot the system. Restored USING Universal Restore and it came right up. The real beauty of Plus Pack isn't that it allows you to load the new drivers, it's that it abstracts the hardware layer so Windows doesn't choke on booting with a new motherboard.

Here is the Acronis description of what Plus Pack does:

"Acronis Universal Restore is a module that allows changing Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL.dll) and install mass storage boot device drivers into the system.

It installs boot device drivers (e.g. hard drive or RAID controller drivers) into the system during the recovery process, so that the operating system can boot from this boot device. If there are proper NIC drivers present in the folder with the drivers, Acronis Universal Restore will copy them into the restored system and will schedule their installation on Windows boot-up.

(!) All the other drivers (e.g. video and sound card drivers, plug and play drivers) are not installed by Acronis Universal Restore, as they can be installed in Windows after the successful migration."

That is exactly what I experienced when using it.