Using Acronis Universal Restore

Preparation

Prepare drivers

Before applying Universal Restore to a Windows operating system, make sure that you have the drivers for the new HDD controller and the chipset. These drivers are critical to start the operating system. Use the CD or DVD supplied by the hardware vendor or download the drivers from the vendor’s website. The driver files should have the *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions. If you download the drivers in the *.exe, *.cab or *.zip format, extract them using a third-party application.

Check access to the drivers in bootable environment

Make sure you have access to the device with drivers when working under bootable media. Use WinPE-based media if the device is available in Windows but Linux-based media does not detect it.

Universal Restore settings

Automatic driver search

Specify where the program will search for the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), HDD controller driver and network adapter driver(s):

• If the drivers are on a vendor's disc or other removable media, turn on the Search removable media.
• If the drivers are located in a networked folder or on the bootable media, specify the path to the folder by clicking Add folder.

In addition, Universal Restore will search the Windows default driver storage folder (usually WINDOWS/inf).

Mass storage drivers to install anyway

You need this setting if:

• The hardware has a specific mass storage controller such as RAID (especially NVIDIA RAID) or a fibre channel adapter.
• If the automatic drivers search does not help to boot the system.

Specify the appropriate drivers by clicking Add driver. The drivers defined here will be installed, with appropriate warnings, even if the program finds a better driver.

Universal Restore process

After you have specified the required settings, click OK.

When the process is complete, you will be able to configure the network connection and specify drivers for the video adapter, USB and other devices.