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Restoring Microsoft Surface Pro 4 after significant repair

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Dear all,

After reading some very extensive instructions on how to create Windows PE, I came to realization that this can be irrelevant if I am running latest version of Acronis. I am running Acronis True Image 2018.

I need to be able to restore my current PC (Surface Pro 4) to the new Surface Pro 4, which I am expecting to get from Microsoft. I do know, even though It seem that I will get the same machine, hardware still going to be a little bit different (new IDs, etc.) and Windows can be unhappy unless I do something special. Therefore I am planning to do the following, before sending my Surface Pro 4 to Microsoft:

1. Create Full PC backup using Acronis TI 2018 - I am using a NAS to store all backups. NAS is located on the network - I am not sure if Acronis can do restore from the network, though.

2. Go to "Acronis Universal Restore" under Tools and create Boot Media

3. Boot using Boot Media and restore;

Will this work? By having True Image 2018, I am hoping to avoid additional hassle and just use Acronis as is.

Thank you!

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Gennady, you will need to create both the Acronis Rescue Media and the Acronis Universal Restore media, though the latter may not be needed if your Windows OS is version 10, as this can handle hardware differences much better than earlier versions did.

You will still need to create a full PC backup of your Surface Pro 4 using ATI 2018, and if you are storing that backup on your NAS, then you will need to have a wired connection to the NAS for doing an restore as wireless support is very limited in the Acronis Rescue Media (this is as much a Microsoft limitation for the WinPE components as it is Acronis).

You should test booting from the Acronis Rescue Media and ensure that it can 'see' your internal HDD or SSD drive, plus with a wired network connection, can access the NAS without issue.  If the internal drive is not recognised or shown, then you may need to inject additional device drivers to support the controller mode used by the drive, i.e. if the drive uses RAID, or for some NVMe M.2 SSD drives.

If there are any access issues with seeing the NAS, then you may wish to consider using an external USB drive instead to keep the recovery as simple as possible.

The actual restore of the backup image from the old computer to the new one needs to be performed using the Acronis Rescue Media (not AUR), and the media needs to boot in the correct BIOS mode as used by Windows.  This should be in UEFI mode on your Surface Pro, but you can confirm this by running the msinfo32 command and looking at what is shown for BIOS mode in the right panel of the report shown.

Once you have restored the backup, then shutdown, remove the Acronis media and disconnect any extra drives, then try booting into Windows without using the AUR media.  If both the old and new computers have been activated for Windows 10 using the same OS version (Home, Pro...) then there should be no activation issue caused by the restore, as activation is based primarily on hardware signature, and both hardware signatures are valid for Windows 10.

If there are any issues with getting Windows to boot, then you may need to shutdown and boot from the AUR media and apply this tool to the restored Windows OS to prepare this for any new hardware found.  This could in turn ask for new device drivers to be provided.

Gene,

I have good news for you: I did exactly what you are planning to do (the famous screen flicker issue is it ?) and it is really as straightforward as you are expecting. However, to keep things simple, I would stay away from the NAS and, as Steve suggested, use an external USB hard disk with your full image .tib file or, as I did, restore it from the internal microSD slot (256GB microSD card)

1. Create full backup with Verify

2. Create boot media

3. Test your boot media, i.e.  does it boot ? Press Power on and Volume- at the same time, no bios settings change necessary. Do you see the blue Acronis screen coming up, then all is well ..

4. flatten your surface pro 4 before sending it to MS, i.e. reset to original state. Do not send the pen, the keyboard, the power cord, nothing .. only the screen.

5. when the new machine arrives, boot from the boot media, restore your image.

6. shutdown and boot normally. On an identical machine your system will re-boot immediately. I also ported a Surface Pro 4 (i7,16GB,512 SSD) to a Surface Pro 2017 (I5,8GB,256SSd) and this booted as well, only that it trundled for a while seeking the necessary new drivers ("Getting device ready").

BUT, all in all, this works like a charm and I never needed the AUR ! There is also an interesting article, I am sure Steve has the link handy, which describes the procedure for restoring an OS drive using Acronis Boot Media in more detail and which gives useful additional information ...

Hope this helps

Heiner

 

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Heiner, did you go through the first setup on the surface or go directly to restore? If you went directly to restore did you have any issues with reactivation  

Mine had the display issue as well  Jim

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

1. I went directly to restore using the Power + Volume Down keys to boot the Acronis USB - stick.

2. No reactivation issues, however, I never tried going from one Windows 10 version to another e.g. from Home to Pro or vice versa. 

Heiner, thanks, I also did not have an activation issue with Windows. However  Acronis did. Had to tell Acronis to move the license to the replacement computer. Things did not go easy. It did not like my backup drive (Transend 1 TB). It could see the drive but said it needed formatted. The network drivers would not work so it could not see my NAS. Although I have used NAS servers on other restores. After trying a few other things I finally just copied the back up to another USB drive (Seagate) and it could see the image and restored the image. Jim

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Good to hear that you got there in the end, Jim !-

Yes, maybe on of the reasons things went that smoothly for me in the past, was that my restore devices so far have been the internal microSD card, an external USB hard disk to which I had copied the .tib file and a SD card that was attached via SD-card to USB adapter ...

The Transcend and Seagate are both external USB drives. One a prize, one a gift. 

Never thought to use the SD card, not sure if any I have are big enough. Might be wise to get a larger SD card for extra storage if nothing else  

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

If. like myself,  you have a Surface with 256 GB SSD then a microSD - card with 256GB may indeed be an alternative ...

I have several clients who are completely computer illiterate. I installed ATI 2018 on their Surface(s) and scheduled a task to backup their SSD to the internal microSD. Nothing to remember, nothing to connect - just set and forget !

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Yes I have one of the 256 GB SSD versions. The Transcend which is the 1 TB drive and the backup drive stay at home when I travel. Primarily in case the Surface disappears on me. I also realize that for a lot of people your solution is a really good choice. I use the Seagate Wireless backup drive for older backups in case something goes really bad with the normal backup. Although I am behind on freshening the files.

Thanks for the comments. Hopefully it helped others as well. 

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Heiner,

I am going through the restore right now. The restore gave me to choose which partitions to restore: C, X and another one. The bootable main partition is of course C and I went only with C. Should I restore ALL? I intuitively thought I only need C - I have never repartitioned my Surface.

What do you think?

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Just select the DISK that contains your c: and everything underneath, so, yes, ALL ... Kind regards H.

Steve and Heiner (and others),

I am in the process of restoring my MS Surface Book 2 (i7, 16GB, 512GB).  When I hold the Vol-Down and Power it, it will boot from the DVD, but the ATI says it cannot see the hard drive.

I followed Steve's PDF (thank you for that) and installed EasyBCD.  When I boot to PE, it does the same thing, ATI cannot see the hard drive.

I assume I need to load a driver for it (hard drive), but what driver and where does it go?

 

Thanks all!

 

Sully

 

 

Michael, please look at the MVP Custom ATIPE Builder tool (link below) which is much simpler to use when adding device drivers, and if you can run it on your MS Surface computer, it has an option to include drivers from that source system.

Thanks Steve.  Last night I created a new PE file with the latest MS ADK, enabling all the features (this time).  I booted the Surface with the new file and it recognized my HD.  I am in the process of restoring now.  

This process took a lot longer than previous uses of ATI.  I am a somewhat long time user of ATI and a bit has changed over the versions.  This has to be a seamless process for the small business owner, so I will need to make some time to back and restore more often so I am more prepared for the inevitable.

Thanks again!

Follow-up... the restore completed successfully.  Thanks again for your assistance.  There is a ton of information here and it was nice to have it to pull from.

Michael

Michael, always glad to hear positive results and happy to have been able to help along the way!

Thanks for this thread and all the comments. I am about to do the same thing.

  • Full disk backup with ATI 2019 onto an external USB HDD.
  • Create boot media on a USB stick.
  • Connected this stick with the USB HDD on a USB hub attached to the Surface's only USB port. 
  • Booted with power+volume down, chose Boot, Boot immediately from USB device.
  • Booted into Acronis environment successfully. And after a moment, all the TIB files on the USB HDD were displayed ready to be restored.

Now to send the Surface back and wait for the replacement.

FWIW: My first Surface had the dreaded screen flicker problem. This current Surface is the replacement, but it had a significant light bleed problem that covered about 10% of the screen.

I hope getting Acronis to transfer the license to the new Surface is straightforward!

Changing the computer in your Acronis account is easy. It will let you know there is a license issue and let you replace the old one with the new one. 

James Bacher wrote:

Changing the computer in your Acronis account is easy. It will let you know there is a license issue and let you replace the old one with the new one. 

Ditto to this, it's an easy process to transfer the license.

59689: Acronis True Image: how to move an activation to another computer