Restoring dual boot to Dissimilar Hardware 2011 True Image with Plus Pack
I have Acronis True Image Home 2011 with the plus pack and made a boot disk for it. I am going to be replacing my motherboard, CPU, and RAM with my tax refund. Right now, I have a dual boot of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit as default and Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit as a second boot partition on the same drive. From http://kb.acronis.com/content/13671 it looks like I can use Acronis Universal Restore to get at least one of them to boot right after the upgrade, but will it work for both?
There is something I still use on the 32-bit side that it doesn't look like the manufacturer is ever going to update to work in 64-bit.
If it will only work on the default (the 64-bit), can I do something before making the image I am going to restore from like go into Device Manager and delete everything on the 32-bit then reboot into the 64-bit and make the image?


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So, just to make sure...
After putting the new motherboard, RAM, and CPU in, I boot with the Acronis boot disk, universal restore one partition, then the second one (pointing to the motherboard drivers each time), then the MBR. After all that, then reboot without the Acronis disk. Right?
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In fact, you don't need to restore the MBR, and you don't need to restore the disk signature, because your partition layout will be exactly the same (I am just realizing now your disk doesn't change). Just make sure you have clear labels on the partitions so that you can restore the right one on the right one (the drive letters change when you use the recovery CD, not the labels).
Upon reboot, Windows activation might decide there has been too much hardward change and request you reactivate. If this doesn't work automatically online, you can call MS support and get it done, if you have your windows product keys.
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Cool.
I've got clear labels on the partitions and one is a LOT smaller than the other too. I was wondering if it would be to much change for activation, but I got the install disks and keys. Assuming the parts come when they are supposed to, I'll be upgrading Wednesday. I'll post how it goes.
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Well, I tried it, but it ended up not working out. I put the motherboard driver disk in the dvd drive and pointed to it for drivers. It did load from it for a while and the computer did boot into windows, but then it kept on trying to get drivers from Windows Update for IDE and SATA and some other stuff. It found a couple, but others failed and still more didn't ever quit trying even when I clicked the link saying "skip checking Windows Update". Couldn't even shut down. Had to hold the power button. It was so busy trying to get stuff from Windows Update, it wouldn't even see the dvd drive so I could give it the motherboard drivers. I tried restoring with universal restore several different times with different options, but ended up just deleting both partitions from the Windows 7 install and making a fresh install of both 32-bit and 64 bit Win 7.
Oh well. I was ready for that too and had some stuff copied to the second hard drive. Also, I have the image of the old partitions I can get stuff off of if I forgot anything.
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Universal restore is not as easy as it sounds. You did great already being able to have Windows boot without a BSOD. ATI UR installs only the most critical hardware drivers (like disk controller drivers), and they have to be unpacked. Then, you still need a bunch of other drivers for everything else. Windows is supposed to sort this out.
Sometimes, doing a repair install of the restored Windows helps in the process, since this is a thorough system examination, and doesn't pertubate programs and settings.
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Did you consider running a Virtual Machine instead of a physical 32 bit installation? That's easy to set up with VMware Player and Converter.
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Pat L wrote:Sometimes, doing a repair install of the restored Windows helps in the process, since this is a thorough system examination, and doesn't pertubate programs and settings.
Ah. Oh well. It was probably better to do a fresh install anyway.
Pat L wrote:Did you consider running a Virtual Machine instead of a physical 32 bit installation?
Actually, yes. I tried Oracle VM Virtual Box and another one, but the hardware and software I need to use in 32-bit didn't work right. It depends to much on the features of the real video card. The virtual video card couldn't do it. I did keep an XP virtual box after I gave up on it for what I wanted though to run stuff I wanted to test.
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I read that if you run your Virtual PC from a remote desktop connection from your host to the guest, you get some/all the benefits of the host video card. The VM team blog was showing how to get aero features on a vista virtual pc (the default virtual video card you get when running the VM directly is not enough for aero).
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