Operation Manual

When Universal Restore is applied to a Linux operating system, it updates a temporary file system

known as the initial RAM disk (initrd). This ensures that the operating system can boot on the new

hardware.

Universal Restore adds modules for the new hardware (including device drivers) to the initial RAM

disk. As a rule, it finds the necessary modules in the /lib/modules directory of the operating system

you are recovering. If Universal Restore cannot find a module it needs, it records the module’s file

name into the log (p. 335).

Universal Restore may modify the configuration of the GRUB boot loader. This may be required, for

example, to ensure the system bootability when the new machine has a different volume layout than

the original machine.

Universal Restore never modifies the Linux kernel.

Reverting to the original initial RAM disk

You can revert to the original initial RAM disk if necessary.

The initial RAM disk is stored on the machine in a file. Before updating the initial RAM disk for the

first time, Universal Restore saves a copy of it to the same directory. The name of the copy is the

name of the file, followed by the _acronis_backup.img suffix. This copy will not be overwritten if you

run Universal Restore more than once (for example, after you have added missing drivers).

To revert to the original initial RAM disk, do any of the following:

 Rename the copy accordingly. For example, run a command similar to the following:

mv initrd-2.6.16.60-0.21-default_acronis_backup.img

initrd-2.6.16.60-0.21-default

 Specify the copy in the initrd line of the GRUB boot loader configuration (p. 158).

5.2.2.3 Applying Universal Restore to multiple operating systems

During recovery, you can use Universal Restore for operating systems of a certain type: all Windows

systems, all Linux systems, or both.

If your selection of volumes to recover contains multiple Windows systems, you can specify all

drivers for them in a single list. Each driver will be installed in the operating system for which it is

intended.

5.3 Recovering BIOS-based systems to UEFI-based and

vice versa

Acronis Backup supports transferring 64-bit Windows operating systems between BIOS-based

hardware and hardware that supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

How it works

Depending on whether the machine uses BIOS or UEFI firmware for booting, the disk with the system

volume must have a specific partition style. The partition style is master boot record (MBR) for BIOS,

and GUID partition table (GPT) for UEFI.

In addition, the operating system itself is sensitive to the type of firmware.