Recovering files from Windows image-level backups

Use the procedures in this section to recover files from an image-level backup.

Prerequisites and considerations

The following requirements and considerations apply to recovering files from a Windows image-level backup:

Prerequisite or consideration

Description

Supported recovery methods

To recover files from an image-level backup, the appliance creates a recovery object that contains the backup's files. For some Windows assets, this object is also exposed as a CIFS (Samba) share and/or an iSCSI LUN on the backup appliance. After you create the recovery object, you will view it on the File Level Recovery tab to see whether the CIFS and iSCSI options are available.

You can recover files from this object in several ways. Options include:

Browse the recovery object and download selected files to a .zip file. This is the simplest method.
Mount the CIFS share on a recovery target machine. From the target machine, select files to recover.
Mount the iSCSI LUN on a recovery target machine. From the target machine, select files to recover. (You must use an iSCSI LUN in some cases. For details, see When to use an iSCSI LUN below.)

Recovery target requirements

The target can be configured with basic, GUID Partition Table (GPT), or dynamic disks. All configured disks must have unique names.

When to use an iSCSI LUN

You must recover by mounting the iSCSI LUN to perform the following tasks:

Recover access control information on files and folders.
Recover New Technology File System (NTFS) encrypted files.
Recover Resilient File System (ReFS) files.
Recover exFAT files.
Recover files from an MBR disk that was converted from GPT (the Windows administrator used the Volume Manager to convert the disk by right-clicking the GPT disk and selecting Convert to MBR).

Note:  For the recovery, iSCSI disks are writable and a 1 GB write limit is enforced. Errors display on the recovery target machine if more than 1 GB is required. In this case, you cannot recover by using iSCSI. Recover files by downloading to a .zip file or by mounting the CIFS share, or recover the entire asset (by using Instant recovery of Windows image-level backups or Unified bare metal recovery of image-level backups).

Windows file recovery

Use the following procedures to recover files from a Windows image-level backup. Before you start, be sure all requirements in Prerequisites and considerations have been met.

Use one of these procedures to create the recovery object:

Note:  If a previously-created recovery object is still mounted for the Windows asset, you must remove it before creating a new one.

To create the recovery object and recover from a backup or imported backup copy – Run on the backup appliance to recover from a backup or imported backup copy.
To create the recovery object and recover from a hot backup copy by using the source backup appliance – Run on the backup appliance to recover from a backup copy that resides on a target appliance or in the Unitrends Cloud .
To create the recovery object and recover from a hot backup copy by using the target appliance – Run on the target appliance to recover from a backup copy that resides on that target appliance.

To create the recovery object and recover from a backup or imported backup copy

1 Log in to the backup appliance.

Note:  You must log in to the backup appliance directly. Logging in to an appliance that is managing the backup appliance is not supported.

2 Select Recover and click the Backup Catalog tab.

(Optional) Use Filter Backups to the right to customize the backups that display. (For details, see Backup Catalog in the the Administrator Guide for Recovery Series, Recovery MAX, and Unitrends Backup.)

3 Expand the Windows asset and select the image-level backup from which you want to recover files.
4 Click Recover Files.

5 Click Confirm to continue. The appliance creates the recovery object.

Note:  If you receive an error on a Unitrends Backup appliance while creating the recovery object, increase the memory allocation for the Unitrends Backup VM by using the host that manages it.

6 Click View FLR.

7 Proceed to .

View the recovery object on the File Level Recovery tab to see which recovery options are supported for the asset you selected. Use one of the following procedures to recover files:

To ensure optimal performance, remove the recovery object from the appliance.

Warning!     If you mounted the CIFS share or iSCSI LUN, be sure to unmount it from the target before you remove the recovery object. Removing the recovery object while the target is still connected causes undesired results and errors on the target machine.

To remove a file-level recovery object

1 Select Recover and click the File Level Recovery tab.
2 Select the recovery object.
3 Click Remove.

4 Click Confirm to continue. The object is removed and no longer displays on the File Level Recovery tab.