Restored image on dissimilar hardware will not boot
Hello - I've been going back and forth for almost 2 weeks with Acronis support and I don't believe the process is getting me anywhere, since I only get 1 reply from them every 24 hours.
The company purchased a copy of True Image 2013 with the Plus Pack to test. Previously, we were only using a copy of 2011 which I would just boot a PC from manually and make an image of. All of the existing backups are stored on a networked PC location.
I created a bootable rescue disk on my USB and restored an image from a Compaq Evo to an HP DC7800. I have the drivers for the 7800 on the flash drive also, but the image will not boot. The restore says it completed successfully but it gets to the Windows XP loading screen, and then the computer reboots to the HP splash screen and will just boot loop like this. It can, however, boot into Safe Mode. I checked Device Manager, and it looked like a few non-critical drivers were not found, which we installed manually in Safe Mode. I cannot remember what they were exactly.
I'm trying a different restore now to from a Dell Optiplex to see if I have the same results. Even if this works, we wouldn't be going backwards from newer hardware to older. This is purely for piece of mind if some older hardware fails and we need to dump it onto a new machine in an emergency.
Everything seems to have worked fine with the Evo restore, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why it is failing. The IT department is leaning on me to "figure it out" so they can make a decision on buying more copies. Right now, the only thing I can think of is that the file structure of my drivers sucks and the software doesn't know how to read it. I've attached a screenshot of what's on the flash drive (FWIW, this is an exact copy of what's on the network too).
Now that I look at it, I am not sure what some of those directories are, and they are dated September 2011, which is before I even started with the company, so it might be worth it to re-download everything. But is that directory structure alright? Ex. CHIPSET, AUDIO, etc.
I read through the manual earlier, and tried to find some things in these forums, but didn't see anything directly related to my problem. Does anyone have some suggestions that can help me? Please and thank you. If any more information is required, please let me know!
Are all the PCs running the same version of Windows XP? If not, such as if one is XP Home and another is XP Pro or even Windows 7, then you can't use Universal Restore. Universal Restore allows restoration to dissimilar hardware, provided you have relevant drivers as James explained, but not to dissimilar OS.
Yes, I have been selecting Universal Restore. I do already have the relevant drivers, but if they are incomplete or not, I'm unsure. I'm not trying to changing the OS. I'm using a PC that didn't have an OS on it and trying to restore the previously backed up XP image to it to prove to the IT department that we have some sort of recovery means in case of emergency, at least until the machines can get properly upgraded and replaced. For some reason, EVO to 7800 is not working, but I tried 7600 to 7800 and it worked fine (the drivers are similar, I'm sure).
While I'm looking over the log, try starting your system in VGA mode from the Windows XP Startup Options Menu. If this works, open add/remove programs and remove any Video Drivers. After doing this,also open device manager and remove any video graphics adapters.
I will post an additional response after reviewing the log file more carefully.
James
The restore log using Universal Restore looks for the most part to be okay. There are a few things I don't not understand listed in the log, but it appears that most (if not all) the necessary drivers are being restored.
The ability to boot into safe mode points to a device driver, startup program, and/or service that is incompatible with the hardware on the target system when booting into normal mode.
The first steps would be to disable all startup items and non-Microsoft services using msconfig while booted into safe mode.
Restart the system in normal mode and see if your results are different (proper boot). If so, you would need to add the startup items and services back one at a time (or in small groups) to see which are causing the problems with normal boot.
If the disabling of the startup items and services does not result in booting into normal mode, than a device driver is still loading that is incompatible with the target system hardware.
There was another post recently about a user with the same issue after using Universal Restore and he found and used an older utility that worked for him to see what device drivers were loading, and allowed him to disable/remove the offending driver.
I will look through post and see if I can locate it. Will post back with a link to the post and utility if so.
Here is the post and link referenced above.
This utility will install and is useful even on Windows 8 (surprisingly so!)
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/40137#comment-125941
http://dl.cdn.chip.de/downloads/4307085/DriverManagerv1.00.zip?13618949…
I tried all of this and nothing worked yet.. VGA Mode didn't do anything, neither did disabling all services, drivers, and startup programs. I installed the program in Safe Mode on this system and I'm looking at the drivers. Having a hard time figuring out where to start. I notice that when I boot into Safe Mode, it is prompting me to install some drivers that the restore might have missed.
So it's possible that Windows has hardware driver installed from the Evo that the new computer hates, and if I could find that, things should work smoother?
Yes, more than likely that is the problem. Since the computer can boot in safe mode, the default drivers Windows is using for booting in safe mode are indeed installed on the system. When you attempt to boot in normal mode, additional drivers are being loaded some of which are from third parties, and may be causing the issues you are experiencing.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/40137#comment-125863
Take a look at the drivers that are loading at boot (in the startup type column of Driver Manager - the columns can be sorted). These are the critical drivers for Windows to use to boot the system.
Since you do not know which are causing the issues, you will have to use trial and error to make the determination of the drivers to disable or remove. I would suggest that you obtain some help from your It department folks that have some experience in the area of hardware device drivers.
If you remove a boot time device driver (required for boot), the system may not boot at all, or it may boot correctly, if it was the offending driver. If you break the system where safe mode doesn't work, you would have to perform the restore with UR again and start over. Once you find the offending driver(s) and the system boots in normal mode, then you should make a new image right away.
Normally the drivers that create the biggest headaches are chipset/CPU and hard disk controller drivers. I would start by determining which are loading on your system that may be present, and needed for the older hardware, but do not support the current hardware and remove those first.
This will be a tedious task but can result in a working bootable system.