Why does Acronis Universal Restore fail?

Did you create an Image from one PC and you want to use it for another PC with different Hardware ?
it will not work.

Yes.   I understood Acronis will allow restoration to a different PC.   I thought that is what is meant by universal restore.   Is there a program that can do that?

> I understood Acronis will allow restoration to a different PC. I thought that is what is meant by universal restore.

Yes, that's what it means. Here's the Acronis page for it:
Acronis Universal Restore
"Quick and easy system recovery to new, dissimilar hardware"

Notice the two download links at the bottom of that page for the program, as well as the link for the AUR User Guide.

Whether it works or not is a different story. I stopped using Acronis several years ago when a Restore failed. I switched to Casper, which has never failed, but I don't think it has a "universal restore" feature (I've always used Casper to restore to similar hardware). Regards, Joe

@DoctorK12008, I was going to say it is very Hard to do, even with Acronis and without any error or problem.
most of times people will not continue.

OK, but I still need to know where to find the three files listed above.

I think it's good idea to try Paragon Adaptive Restore and see if it can do this for you without any error, it's worth trying.
https://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/adaptiverestore/

Being that it's a Dell and the W7 image is probably OEM ,it probably wouldn't activate on the new hardware anyway,so you are probably wasting your time.

If you have a W8 machine pro or later you could try to restore to a VM using the built in hypervisor and see if that works,but I think you'll still run into the activation issue.

I'm sure you've tried to Google them and come up with many hits, but, personally, I won't download drivers from any of the third-party "Driver Updates" sites — I use just the manufacturers' sites. So I suggest looking here:
300S-08IHH Desktop (ideacentre)

Regards, Joe

P.S. When I hit Submit, I saw pgm554's post — that is an excellent point about moving an OEM Dell Windows to a Lenovo machine. Spot-on!

Yes, it is an OEM version of Windows.   Even if it cannot be activated, I just need a working computer until Dell tech support comes with the new motherboard, hopefully this week.   I understand that Windows will work without activation for a limited time.   Is this correct?   If so , how do I proceed from this point?

Try Paragon Adaptive Restore, it works on Dissimilar Hardware,
https://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/adaptiverestore/

I know it seems innocent to you and a very reasonable thing to do — after all, you simply want to use it temporarily until your properly-licensed computer is fixed — but it is almost surely a violation of Microsoft's licensing terms, and with EE's own Terms of Use, we're not permitted to engage in discussions about how to violate licensing terms (aka software piracy). That said, some of the previous posts may help you, such as getting the missing drivers from the Lenovo site, but don't be surprised if an EE Admin comes along and shuts this down. Regards, Joe

Thanks, Joe.   I will just wait for the Dell repair.