What are the files that recognize the hardware during Imaging?

Hash l

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Jun 1, 2013
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I was reading a tutorial about Imaging computers using windows XP (I know its old), I understood that only computers/systems that have similar or identical hardware as the host may be imaged. I know that due to softwares such as ACRONIS, FOG..... has made it possible for imaging across different hardware.
So coming to my question, I would like to know what are the files involved in recognizing the hardware during the imaging process? And what are the files that softwares such as ACRONIS..... modify to allow imaging across dissimilar hardware. Will these files be different during imaging of XP, Win 7 and Win 8?
 
The HDD image that is created doesn't change when imaged by these software programs and anytime hardware changes there is going to be a need to change the drivers that are loaded in order to properly use that hardware so not sure exactly what you are asking -- What has changed is the Operating Software (ie. windows) and it's ability to load across multiple hardware using a base set of drivers so that it can at least be loaded in order to then make the needed driver changes for the specific hardware that it is running on. In the past with earlier versions of windows it loaded several hardware specific drivers that would make it impossible to load on systems with different hardware and was not very adept at substituting other drivers in order to at least boot to a minimal state so that when hardware changed the system could adapt by removing the old drivers for the replaced hardware and install the new drivers for the new hardware - thus when changing hardware many times you had to reinstall the OS from scratch.

However with more recent versions of windows it has gotten much better at adapting to hardware changes ( ie. Plug and Play compatibility) and can now usually at least be booted in safe mode so that the necessary driver changes can be made (or are automatically changed when new hardware is found) without the need to completely reinstall the OS.