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How do I know which Driver (*.inf) files to include in Universal Restore Disk?

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The Acronis Bootable Media Builder for the Universal Restore Disk  offers to include Drivers.

Unfortunately it does not indicate how you know which driver to include. I have 2,832 .inf files on my PC.

Can I narrow that down somehow? (maybe only .inf files in \Windows, etc.)

 

This article suggest C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

But I'm on 64 bit windows and there is nothing in the System\ folder. Shouldn't 64 bit drivers be there no in \system32 ?

 

It does seem that if I just select the above folder, it adds ALL .inf files  from there.j

BUT it gives me an error about a missing INF file. Can't read all of it b/c I have my font DPI set to 135%.

Am I on the right track?

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Clay, you don't need to include any device drivers from your current PC where you are creating the Acronis Universal Restore media, the tool is intended to allow you to migrate your OS backup to a different system and you only need to include device drivers for any specific components of that different system that would prevent your OS from booting, i.e. disk drive or controller drivers.

In most cases just running AUR without any additional drivers will allow the system to boot and Windows will detect new hardware and load generic drivers for it.

Steve is correct. Most of the time you don't need to add drivers to the UR media. The only need would be in the case that the computer you are trying to use the media on will not boot the media. Then you need to figure out which drivers need to be added to allow the computer to boot the media.

Clay,

There is some misunderstanding potentially. If you are asking about which drivers to prepare for a universal restore, it is more elaborate than what I think the posters above answered.

For UR, you need to find the chipset drivers of the new/other computer/motherboard you want to restore your current backed-up OS on, Typically you find this on the computer/motherboard manufacturer web site. Some time, the new/other computer has additional disk controllers on its motherboard (like ASmedia, or other things like that, beyond the Intel/AMD chipset).

If Windows is already installed on the new/other computer AND it is the same Windows version as the one you are trying to restore, the drivers are already in the Windows/System32/Drivers folder (you can copy this entire folder), and the Windows/SySWOW64/Drivers also.

That said, if you have Windows 10 backed up, simply restore it on the new/other computer and try to boot. It might just work right there, without UR. Windows 10 is particularly resilient in that sense.

One thing that is important, you need to boot the new/other computer on the same BIOS setting that you want the final OS to be in. Ie, if you want to get a UEFI/GPT setup, make sure the new/other computer boots the Acronis rescue media on UEFI. If you want a legacy BIOS/MBR set up, boot the new/other computer on legacy mode with the Acronis rescue media.

So, it sounds like the best idea would be to Try restoring to a new machine but be prepared to create a new UR Disk once I know what the new Motherboard, etc. will be, right?

 

I realize that UR is the equivalent of a brain transplant :)

 

-Clay

So, it sounds like the best idea would be to Try restoring to a new machine but be prepared to create a new UR Disk once I know what the new Motherboard, etc. will be, right?

 

I realize that UR is the equivalent of a brain transplant :)

 

-Clay

IF it were me.  I would take a backup of your "old system" just before the moment you want to put it on the new system.  However, remove the original drive of the new system and hold onto for posterity or as a fall back.  using a new drive (at least a different one than the orignal), restore the image of the old system onto the new one.  See if it boots - it won't  -you'll get a BSOD.  POwer off and then boot into your universal restore reocery media.  Run universal restore on the system.  Reboot.  Should boot up fine now, as long as you have all of the bios settings correct on the new system:

1) Main thing to check for is to ensure that the SATA mode is set the same on both the old and the new system (both should either be SATA, AHCI or RAID - needs to be the same).

2) If the old system was a legacy/bios/mbr OS install, then the new system needs to support legacy/bios/mbr OS as well.  Most new systems will support both legacy and UEFI, but not all.  For instance, I have an old HP netbook - it only supports Legacy.  I also have an ASUS T200 2-in-1 and it only supports UEFI.  So, images taken with my new T200 will never work on the old HP and images taken from the old HP will never work on the ASUS because of their bios limitations.  On my PC though, which supports both legacy and/or UEFI images, I can restore an image taken from my HP or my ASUS to the desktop and the PC can boot either of them... as long as my bios has been configured properly.

Clear as mud?  The point is, yes, Acronis can take an image of any system and can technically restore that image to almost any system and Universal Restore is the key that allows this to happen.  However, even though Acronis is capable of doing this, if your bios is not properly configured, or cannot be modified, you may still not be able to do this.  

Windows licensing is another issue - you can't take an OEM license from one machine and put it on another machine - it's not going to license automatically.  If both systems have Windows 10 licenses of the same version though, you'll be fine as the hardware only has to be licensed and that's all Windows 10 cares about.  Windows 8.1 and older were licensed differently.