how do I avoid universal restore being invoked unnecessarily?
Last monday I had to install an SSD in a notebook. So I attached the SSD externally via USB and booted True Image 2020 from a bootable CD (version 22510). I cloned the HDD contents (Win7 that I was going to upgrade to Win10 once the SSD was in the notebook) to the SSD using the 'automatic' method. After the disk contents were copied, I briefly saw a window mentioning "Universal Restore" was running for a split second. And after I installed the SSD in the notebook all of the drivers were removed and needed to be reinstalled, requiring numerous reboots. This was not only inconvenient but also totally unnecessary as I was not cloning to dissimilar hardware. Fortunately, It ran fine afterwards, but all of the wifi passwords were lost.
Why was Universal Restore being invoked? How can I avoid it when unnecessary, and opt for it when I do need it?
Thanks Steve, now I understand! But I have been cloning like this for years now without ever having any issues. I was always reluctant to remove the old drive from the notebook until all the contents were safely cloned to a new drive. I once accidentally dropped a hard drive before cloning a long time ago. Luckily it wasn't broken, but since that day I decided to take less risks.
Is this since the new TI 2020 boot disk was released? I never saw this with any of the older versions.
Peter,
I copied a warning in the TI 2014 User Guide about cloning, it appears below:
Warning! If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you will not be able to boot from it. Windows does not support booting from external USB hard drives. Please clone to internal SSD or HDD instead
I did not bother to look any earlier.
Thanks! Would there also be a possibility to disable the AUR treatment if one doesn't need it?
PeterL wrote:Thanks! Would there also be a possibility to disable the AUR treatment if one doesn't need it?
Simple answer is No! The recovery process decides what to use based on the hardware encountered in these scenarios.
KB 56634: Acronis True Image: how to clone a disk - shows that this advice has applied since ATI 2010 and even earlier with the Acronis Echo variation of ATI.
I'm a long time user of ATI (since version 9.0 dating from 14 years ago or something like that, or even earlier) and this must have been changed at some point. The KB articles and included help files are contradictory even today. In the 2020 version of the help file (screenshot taken from the help file on the boot disk is pasted beneath) the user is advised to attach the target drive via USB (if the computer, e.g. a notebook, does not have a bay for adding the higher capacity drive that you wish to clone your system files to.).
I'm sure you're right, but the documentation is ambiguous at least.
The second paragraph below the one you highlighted is wording, although changed somewhat, that refers to installing the target in the original source location. Especially important for laptops. Why? Because not doing so is likely to result on an un-bootable target drive. That condition can be fixed in most cases with other tools but can be avoided in most all cases if this recommendation/warning is adhered to.
I researched this back to a change in instructions with TI 2012. I am copy/paste/quoted this below. Interestingly in 2011 there were 2 versions of ATI. A Standard and a Notebook version. The Notebook version tells users to migrate disks by using a disk backup image file and restore that file to the target disk.
To transfer the system, you must first install the new disk in the computer. If your computer doesn't have a bay for another hard disk, you can temporarily install it in place of your CD drive or use a USB 2.0 connection to the external target disk. If that is not possible, you can clone a hard disk by creating a disk image and recovering it to a new hard disk with larger partitions.
On program screens, damaged partitions are marked with a red circle and a white cross inside in the upper left corner. Before you start cloning, you should check such disks for errors and correct the errors using the appropriate operating system tools.
For best results, install the target (new) drive where you plan to use it and the source drive in another location, e.g. in an external USB enclosure. This recommendation is especially important for laptops.
We strongly recommend that you create a backup of the entire original disk as a safety precaution. It could be your data saver if something goes wrong with your original hard disk during cloning. For information on how to create such a backup see see Backing up partitions and disks (p. 40). After creating the backup, make sure that you validate it