Universal Restore for 2012 Plus Pack
Hi there,
I've been in touch with Acronis Support many times regarding this problem, and I don't seem to be getting anywhere...
Basically, my backups are working ok, but when I try to restore them to another computer (both physical and virtual tested) I cannot get the universal restore option to appear, therefore any machine I restore the disk to suffers from BSOD and reboots as the drivers are different.
The Universal Restore option simply does not appear in the Recovery Wizard on the Acronis boot media, I've tried getting different media, downloading the ISO from the website and also the WinPE option, nothing gets it to appear?
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions as I've been troubleshooting this with Acronis since the start of December and I'm not getting anywhere!
Thanks
What is the process if you are only doing bare metal backup and restore with the boot media?
I want to buy a new laptop, so I want to transfer my programs to the new one. Acronis universal restore promised to do it, so, I bought Acronis TIH2012 and tried to do it in a laptop. It looks like it cannot do the job.
In XP era I tried to do the same with many programs, Cyberlink Power Backup did it nicely and easily. But, Cyberlink doesn't update their backup product anymore.
TallTree,
You can a bare metal restore with UR, of course. UR just requires that the right drivers (disk controller) drivers are available during the backup (hint: they cannot be on the disk you restore to)
You can a bare metal restore with UR, of course. UR just requires that the right drivers (disk controller) drivers are available during the backup (hint: they cannot be on the disk you restore to)
Let's say you are doing a UR to a VM...where do the drivers come from?
You could try to copy the drivers from Windows\system32\drivers onto a usb disk available to the VM preboot environment at the same time as the Acronis recovery CD.
Many users prefer to use a converter to create directly a VM disk file from an existin computer.
I tried personally the UR to get a VM going, but couldn't make it work (as it happens sometimes with UR)... It doesn't mean you cannot make it work in your case. Just a note that UR is not an obvious process anyway...
Many users prefer to use a converter to create directly a VM disk file from an existin computer.
May I get an example of a convertor to create a VM? Thanks!
Found one: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx
The universal restore is unable to restore Windows 7 on dissimilar hardware. I feel like wasting my holidays to test this software. In next week end I'll try the other options.
I tried to restore from Partitions backup, File backup, and System Image:
1. As outlined in document kb.acronis.com/content/4828 I downloaded the ISO file, burnt on a CD. Then I booted a laptop from the CD.
Result: Acronis screen showed up, when I selected "Acronis True Image Home" the computer hanged.
By the way, in document .../23561 it said It will show "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)" but the "(Full Version) was missing.
2. As outlined in document "kb.acronis.com/content/23882" I downloaded AIK for Windows 7 (PE 3.0), followed all the steps and created a WinPE Media with
Acronis plug-in. Then I tried to restore Windows as described in kb.acronis.com/content/23561 multiple times.
Result: It showed "Restore operation failed" many times and showed once taht it cannot read a specific memory address.
The restoration media doesn't give any option to make partition. To have the partitions, I booted from Windows 7 installation DVD and created partitions.
I tried with unpartioned HDD, partitioned HDD, partitions unformated, partitions formated, Windows uninstalled, Windows installed, bigger capacity HDD than
the original one, smaller than the original one.
3. Acronis claimed, Universal restore recognises backup taken from Windows. But when I tried to resore from System image taken from Windows, Universal
restore showed "It is not the last volume of backup". I put each DVD of the backup set, it gave the same error message.
To test the set I took off the HDD from the 2nd laptop, put it on the original laptop and restored the system, Windows was restored perfectly.
4. I also tried to resore the files, but the restore precess doesn`t recognise the backup.
Before trying to do all these I took 8 sets of backups:
i) System image from Windows 7, 2 sets
ii) Partitions backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, HDD in original laptop, 2 sets
a) One set in DVD
b) One set in USB HDD
iii) Files backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, source HDD in original laptop, 2 sets
a) One set in DVD
b) One set in USB HDD
iv) Partitions backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, source HDD was connected to another PC, 1 set
v) Partitions backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, source HDD was connected to another PC, 1 set.
The universal restore is unable to restore Windows 7 on dissimilar hardware. I feel like wasting my holidays to test this software. In next week end I'll try the other options.
I tried to restore from Partitions backup, File backup, and System Image:
1. As outlined in document kb.acronis.com/content/4828 I downloaded the ISO file, burnt on a CD. Then I booted a laptop from the CD.
Result: Acronis screen showed up, when I selected "Acronis True Image Home" the computer hanged.
By the way, in document .../23561 it said It will show "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)" but the "(Full Version) was missing.
2. As outlined in document "kb.acronis.com/content/23882" I downloaded AIK for Windows 7 (PE 3.0), followed all the steps and created a WinPE Media with
Acronis plug-in. Then I tried to restore Windows as described in kb.acronis.com/content/23561 multiple times.
So far, you have described that your stock Linux-based CD was not working and you had to create a WinPE-based recovery CD. This happens often. I understand the WinPE recovery CD is working correctly now? Meaning you can launch ATI, navigate to your backup etc?
Can you see the Universal Restore feature?
Result: It showed "Restore operation failed" many times and showed once taht it cannot read a specific memory address.
The restoration media doesn't give any option to make partition. To have the partitions, I booted from Windows 7 installation DVD and created partitions.
You don't need to prepartition with the recovery CD. ATi just lays out each partition on at a time or altogether as a cloning process would do, if you selected the whole disk instead of each partition at at time.
I tried with unpartioned HDD, partitioned HDD, partitions unformated, partitions formated, Windows uninstalled, Windows installed, bigger capacity HDD than
the original one, smaller than the original one.
With 2011 and 2012 the best chance of restores are on a clean disk (you can use diskpart on the Window installation DVD to clean the disk).
Is your disk an MBR or GPT disk? Is it a dynamic or basic disk?
3. Acronis claimed, Universal restore recognises backup taken from Windows. But when I tried to resore from System image taken from Windows, Universal
restore showed "It is not the last volume of backup". I put each DVD of the backup set, it gave the same error message.
Don't use DVDs. Restoring from DVD seems to create many problems with ATI 2011 and 2012. Might be because of the disk interface for the DVD reader or something else...
i) System image from Windows 7, 2 sets
ii) Partitions backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, HDD in original laptop, 2 sets
a) One set in DVD
b) One set in USB HDD
iii) Files backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, source HDD in original laptop, 2 sets
a) One set in DVD
b) One set in USB HDD
iv) Partitions backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, source HDD was connected to another PC, 1 set
v) Partitions backup with Acronis True Image Home 2012, source HDD was connected to another PC, 1 set.
Make sure you include all the partitions of the disk containing the system in the backup.
Why do you feel you need to use Universal Restore? Are you backing up one computer and restoring it on another computer?
Do you see the UR option when you restore? Do you have the necessary drivers (disk controller, chipset) available on a USB disk or flash drive during the restore for ATI to pick up during the system restore?
One important point is identified by Pat L that is, ATI may have some problems with disk interface with DVD reader.
But when I tried to restore from external HDD, still it failed to restore. I think ATI looks for the driver files which are built-in in Windows 7. Those files are not provided by the manufacturer.
Another apparent problem is, ATI doesn't recognize the "System Reserve" of 100 MB, created by Windows 7. ATI treats it as a normal partition and assigns drive letter C:. So, the C: of backup goes to D: and D: of backup goes to E:.
Quote:
"So far, you have described that your stock Linux-based CD was not working"
My point is, even if it is Linux based, it should work, it should take me upto a point where it will ask for the backup media or something.
Quote:
"Can you see the Universal Restore feature?"
Yes, with WinPE CD I can see the feature.
Quote:
"You don't need to prepartition with the recovery CD. ATi just lays out each partition on at a time or altogether as a cloning process would do, if you selected the whole disk instead of each partition at at time."
It doesn't give the option to select the whole HDD. The selection option is activated when I pre-partition the HDD. I had to select a specific partition against a specific partition of the backup, it then deletes the partitions and recreates the partitions.
Quote:
"With 2011 and 2012 the best chance of restores are on a clean disk (you can use diskpart on the Window installation DVD to clean the disk)."
Before first try I low level formatted the whole HDD. In subsequent try I used first 300 and last 100 MB erase I mean quick low level format.
Quote:
"Is your disk an MBR or GPT disk? Is it a dynamic or basic disk?"
I am pretty sure it was MBR and basic disk. I just put the Windows 7 installation DVD, at the disk selection menu created two partitions and clicked "Cancel" button to end the installation process. I did not manipulate any option. It created 100 MB of system reserve by itself.
Quote:
"Make sure you include all the partitions of the disk containing the system in the backup."
Yes, I included all the partitions of the source disk.
Quote:
"Why do you feel you need to use Universal Restore? Are you backing up one computer and restoring it on another computer?"
I want to buy a new laptop. I want to transfer my applications to the new one.
Quote:
"Do you see the UR option when you restore? Do you have the necessary drivers (disk controller, chipset) available on a USB disk or flash drive during the restore for ATI to pick up during the system restore?"
Yes, I can see the UR option. I used a normal SATA disk so, no disk driver should be needed. Other drivers were in the same USB disk where the backup file were.
I think driver is one of the main problems of ATI. For 160 GB and 320 GB SATA drive I have never used any external driver, all versions of Windows had them built-in. Even in all versions of DOS, basic IDE disk drivers were built-in. But ATI looks for the driver and when it doesn't find them it fails.
One important point is identified by Pat L that is, ATI may have some problems with disk interface with DVD reader.
But when I tried to restore from external HDD, still it failed to restore. I think ATI looks for the driver files which are built-in in Windows 7. Those files are not provided by the manufacturer.
Another apparent problem is, ATI doesn't recognize the "System Reserve" of 100 MB, created by Windows 7. ATI treats it as a normal partition and assigns drive letter C:. So, the C: of backup goes to D: and D: of backup goes to E:.
Quote:
"So far, you have described that your stock Linux-based CD was not working"
My point is, even if it is Linux based, it should work, it should take me upto a point where it will ask for the backup media or something.
Quote:
"Can you see the Universal Restore feature?"
Yes, with WinPE CD I can see the feature.
Quote:
"You don't need to prepartition with the recovery CD. ATi just lays out each partition on at a time or altogether as a cloning process would do, if you selected the whole disk instead of each partition at at time."
It doesn't give the option to select the whole HDD. The selection option is activated when I pre-partition the HDD. I had to select a specific partition against a specific partition of the backup, it then deletes the partitions and recreates the partitions.
Quote:
"With 2011 and 2012 the best chance of restores are on a clean disk (you can use diskpart on the Window installation DVD to clean the disk)."
Before first try I low level formatted the whole HDD. In subsequent try I used first 300 and last 100 MB erase I mean quick low level format.
Quote:
"Is your disk an MBR or GPT disk? Is it a dynamic or basic disk?"
I am pretty sure it was MBR and basic disk. I just put the Windows 7 installation DVD, at the disk selection menu created two partitions and clicked "Cancel" button to end the installation process. I did not manipulate any option. It created 100 MB of system reserve by itself.
Quote:
"Make sure you include all the partitions of the disk containing the system in the backup."
Yes, I included all the partitions of the source disk.
Quote:
"Why do you feel you need to use Universal Restore? Are you backing up one computer and restoring it on another computer?"
I want to buy a new laptop. I want to transfer my applications to the new one.
Quote:
"Do you see the UR option when you restore? Do you have the necessary drivers (disk controller, chipset) available on a USB disk or flash drive during the restore for ATI to pick up during the system restore?"
Yes, I can see the UR option. I used a normal SATA disk so, no disk driver should be needed. Other drivers were in the same USB disk where the backup files were.
I think driver is one of the main problems of ATI. For 160 GB and 320 GB SATA drive I have never used any external driver, all versions of Windows had basic disk drivers built-in. Even in all versions of DOS, basic IDE disk drivers were built-in. But ATI looks for the driver and when it doesn't find them it fails.
I used a normal SATA disk so, no disk driver should be needed. Other drivers were in the same USB disk where the backup files were.I think driver is one of the main problems of ATI. For 160 GB and 320 GB SATA drive I have never used any external driver, all versions of Windows had basic disk drivers built-in. Even in all versions of DOS, basic IDE disk drivers were built-in. But ATI looks for the driver and when it doesn't find them it fails.
Windows installs drivers for the disk controller, and these depends on the motherboard and chipset used. To the extent that your disk controller can handle several interface types, this has nothing to do with the disk interface.
Can you copy the contents of system32/drivers to a folder under the root of a flash drive you can have plugged in the computer during restoree? When ATI asks for the drivers, point it at that folder. That might work.
You can contact Acronis support for recovery. Support for recovery is always free.