Bootable media for restoring to disimiliar hardware
I am thinking of building a new computer and would like to use universal restore. Is there a guide on how to create bootable media for restoring to dissimiliar hardware (universal restore?) and which drivers need to be included? What about UEFI & MBR? Any other pointers would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Martin, please see KB 59876: Acronis True Image 2018: how to restore to dissimilar hardware for the official KB guide to the AUR process.
In principle, the process is as follows (simplified):
- Make a full disk & partitions backup of your source Windows OS drive, ensuring that all hidden/system partitions are included. Make a note of how this OS boots by running msinfo32 and checking the BIOS mode setting.
- Create the Simple Acronis bootable Rescue Media that will be required to restore the backup image to your new computer. Note: that how you boot this media will determine whether any migration will take place when doing the restore. Example: if your current OS is Legacy / MBR and you boot the rescue media in UEFI mode, then the restored OS will be converted to GPT to work with UEFI on the new computer.
- When you have decided on what your new computer will be, i.e. what motherboard, BIOS type, etc, then you will also be able to decide on what device drivers may be needed by AUR. These will normally be the motherboard chipset and disk controller drivers - most of the other drivers will be handled by your Windows OS (assuming you are on Windows 10).
- Create the AUR Rescue Media as a separate USB stick or CD - or alternatively, if you use the MVP Custom ATIPE Builder tool, you can have both media on the same USB stick, then run the AUR tool from the menu option provided.
- When ready to proceed, then boot the new computer from the Simple Rescue Media in the mode that matches how the new computer OS should boot (probably as UEFI with GPT), and restore the backup image.
- Shutdown the new computer, remove the backup drive and rescue media, and if this is Windows 10, try doing an initial boot of the OS to see if it will succeed. If the differences are not too great then Windows 10 can often work without needing to run AUR.
- If needed, boot from the AUR Rescue Media and allow the tool to prepare the restored OS and apply any additional device drives that are needed.
Once again many thanks Steve. So the drivers are added during the restore process and are not added when creating the bootable media? Is this correct?
Martin, to add the drivers to the AUR media during creation you would first need to identify what drivers are likely to be needed. You should also be able to point AUR at where you have the new drivers as described in the final part of the KB document pointed to above.
- Boot the machine once again with Acronis Bootable Media.
- Select the Acronis Universal Restore option.
- Add a folder with the drivers under Automatic drive search.
- Click OK.
Thanks Steve. Is it possible to make AUR media via the windows interface. As you know from my earlier I cannot access my bios to boot from recovery media
Martin, you would need to access the Windows Recovery panels and choose the options to boot from the USB drive in that way.
Before you make yourself crazy, try doing a system recovery using a simple (Windows RE based) recovery disk. Since you're going to wipe the new system anyways, you have nothing to lose. There's a good chance that the Windows version you restore will have enough drivers (generic or otherwise) to get your new system up and running.
Then you can install any hardware-specific drivers using a running Windows system.
If this all doesn't work, you can always fall back to the more complicated procedure.
Hi again,
I notice from the KB article that the AUR drivers need have the *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions. The drivers I have downloaded are in a Zip folder. I have unzipped the folder but the drivers now have *.exe, extensions. How do I get the drivers in *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extension?
Thank you
Martin, have you tried looking inside the .exe files using such as 7Zip - sometimes these are also self-extracting archives?
If I click on the exe it wants to install, right clicking doesn't bring up options for exploring file
Martin, you would need to have 7zip installed if using that archive tool. I am able to right-click on an .exe file and bring up a menu showing a 7zip option that allows me to view the contents of an exe file. (The screen shots are purely for an example, not a driver file).
Thanks, This is what I get when I open the chipset driver.exe file - see attached. No *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions.
Martin, which drivers are you looking at here? You should only really need such as the chipset and disk controller drivers, and then only if these are prompted for by AUR when you use it after restoring an image to new hardware. Even then, if this is Windows 10, it is worth trying to boot without using AUR and letting Windows resolve any missing driver issues initially.
What I attached was most of what was in the opened CHIPSET driver exe file. I will try doing a standard restore first but I want to be prepared in case I need to do a universal restore.
Martin, the only other options are if you can find an alternative version of the chipset drivers that do offer the necessary .inf, .sys etc files, or else to do a vanilla / basic install of Windows on the new hardware and install the chipset .exe files then recover the driver using a drive backup tool such as double-driver.
I ran into the same exact problem: no matter where I looked, I couldn't find .inf files. That's what led me to try a standard restore.