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Using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) does not solve this problem, because
Sysprep permits replacing drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network
adapters, video cards etc.). As for system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass
storage device drivers, they must be identical on the source and the target computers (see
Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and 216915).
Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent
system restoration by replacing the crucial Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass
storage device drivers.
Acronis Universal Restore
is applicable for:
1. Instant recovery of a failed system on different hardware
2. Hardware-independent cloning and deployment of operating systems
3. Real-to-virtual and virtual-to-real computer migration for system recovery, test and other
purposes.
3.7.2 Acronis Universal Restore general principles
1. Automatic HAL and mass storage drivers selection
Acronis Universal Restore searches the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image
being restored) for HAL and mass storage device drivers and installs drivers that better fit
the target hardware. You can specify a custom driver repository (a folder or folders on a
network drive or CD) which will also be used for drivers search.
The Windows default driver storage folders are determined in the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\DevicePath.
Generally, it is WINDOWS/inf folder.
2. Manual selection of mass storage device driver
If the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as a SCSI, RAID, or Fibre
Channel adapter) for the hard disk, you can install the appropriate driver manually,
bypassing the automatic driver search-and-install procedure.
3. Installing drivers for plug-and-play devices
The primary goal of Acronis Universal Restore is to boot the restored system. The current
version of this product handles only HAL and mass storage device drivers and does not
install drivers for other devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). Once the
restored system starts, Windows takes control and initiates the usual first-start process. At
this point, you will be able to specify drivers for other devices if Windows cannot find them
automatically.
3.7.3 Acronis Universal Restore and Microsoft Sysprep
As appears from the above, Acronis Universal Restore is
not
a system preparation tool. You
can apply it to any system image created by Acronis products, including images prepared
with Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep). The following is an example of using both
tools on the same system.
Acronis Universal Restore does not strip security identifier (SID) and user profile settings in
order to run the system immediately after recovery without re-joining the domain or re-
mapping network user profiles. If you are going to change the above settings on a recovered
system, you can prepare the system with Sysprep, image it and restore, if need be, using
Acronis Universal Restore.
