Recovering an overwritten or corrupted file
Recovering an overwritten or corrupted file is easier than recovering a deleted file because the file
itself can be right-clicked instead of the folder. To recover an overwritten or corrupted file:
1.
Right-click the overwritten or corrupted file, and then click
Properties
.
2.
Click
Previous Versions
.
3.
To view the old version, click
Open
. To copy the old version to another location, click
Copy
to replace the current version with the older version, click
Restore
.
Recovering a folder
To recover a folder:
1.
Position the cursor so that it is over a blank space in the folder to be recovered. If the cursor
hovers over a file, that file is selected.
2.
Right-click, select
Properties
from the bottom of the menu, and then click the
Previous Versions
tab.
3.
Click either
Copy
or
Restore
.
Clicking
Restore
enables the user to recover everything in that folder as well as all subfolders.
Clicking
Restore
does not delete any files.
Backup and shadow copies
Shadow copies are only available on the network via the client application, and only at a file or
folder level as opposed to the entire volume. Hence, the standard backup associated with a volume
backup will not work to back up the previous versions of the file system. To answer this particular
issue, shadow copies are available for backup in two situations. If the backup software in question
supports the use of shadow copies and can communicate with underlying block device, it is
supported, and the previous version of the file system will be listed in the backup application as
a complete file system snapshot. If the built-in backup application NTbackup is used, the backup
software forces a snapshot, and then uses the snapshot as the means for backup. The user is
unaware of this activity and it is not self-evident although it does address the issue of open files.
Shadow Copy Transport
Shadow Copy Transport provides the ability to transport data on a Storage Area Network (SAN).
With a storage array and a VSS-aware hardware provider, it is possible to create a shadow copy
on one server and import it on another server. This process, essentially “virtual” transport, is
accomplished in a matter of minutes, regardless of the size of the data.
A shadow copy transport can be used for a number of purposes, including:
•
Tape backups
An alternative to traditional backup to tape processes is transport of shadow copies from the
production server onto a backup server, where they can then be backed up to tape. Like the
other two alternatives, this option removes backup traffic from the production server. While
some backup applications might be designed with the hardware provider software that enables
transport, others are not. The administrator should determine whether or not this functionality
is included in the backup application.
•
Data mining
The data in use by a particular production server is often useful to different groups or
departments within an organization. Rather than add additional traffic to the production server,
a shadow copy of the data can be made available through transport to another server. The
shadow copy can then be processed for different purposes, without any performance impact
on the original server.
The transport process is accomplished through a series of DISKRAID command steps:
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File server management
