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Windows server backup recovery from copied backup drive.

I am trying to copy our windows server backup drive to another hard drive, restore this to a different piece of equipment, and then recover back something from 1+ month ago.

I was able to restore this to a virtual machine. However, I was not able to restore back any individual files / folders from using windows server backup. Using the windows server backup to restore it says the drive is offline "the disk that contains the backup is either not online or is not accessible" clicking any of the different backup dates. I guess since this is a copy it is looking for something specific... how would i mimic this onto the copied disk so i can access the recovery data?

Davis McCarn

The copied backup file has to be put in the same path as the original backup. It can be a copy of the backup file; but, if it was at F:\Backup when the backup was created, it has to be at F:\Backup when the files are restored.

Daniel Booker

ASKER

"WindowsImageBackup" is the folder that Windows Server Backup puts it into. The original hard drive was a dedicated hard drive for windows image backup, so it did not have a drive letter until i assigned it 1 to make the data easier to copy. I've already tried to rename the hard drive to match the name and gave it the same drive letter I assigned the dedicated hard drive.

Davis McCarn

The fact that it is a WindowsImageBackup changes everything. You won't be able to restore it to a virtual machine; only to a drive of equal or greater capacity than the original. As long as you don't try to boot that restored image, it ought to be OK if it is different hardware and I would move the drive to another working PC as soon as the restore completed so I could copy off the files I wanted.
Here is a tutorial on restoring image backups:
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

Daniel Booker

ASKER

As I've stated in the first post I have already restored it to a virtual machine and it is running. I have the server running just the same as the original. The problem I'm looking now is the copied backup drive attached to the virtual server when I go into the Windows Server Backup program the previous dates that I should be able to restore files and folders from says the backup drive is offline.

Davis McCarn

But; a System Image Backup is an image of the drive as it exists at that time and, unless one manually renames the folder, it gets overwritten by any subsequent backup.
If there was another backup job being run on the files, that is a different matter and I also don't know,' first hand, if an image backup would include VSS copies of previous file versions.
Was there something besides the image backup running on the old server?

Daniel Booker

ASKER

The only way I guess I can test this out further is to pull the original backup drive. I know for sure the original backup drive contains months of backup that I can see in the windows server backup that i am able to recover back to looking at the files and folders recovery.

Davis McCarn

You could always plug in a USB drive and restore the files to it. And/or, the original backup drive must have more than the WindowsImageBackup on it. Did you check that?

Daniel Booker

ASKER

Yes, but I'm just verifying that this can be down, because the owner requested the backup drive be copied so he could have this backup and all previous backups on it kept in a safe.

The original backup drive only has the files created from Windows Server Backup.

Davis McCarn

If that drive does not have other backups listed in its folders, the other jobs must be creating the backups somewhere else.

Daniel Booker

ASKER

What do you mean by listed of the in the folder?
There are no other backup jobs running on the server.

Looking at the Copied and Live backup hard drives folder its goes like "I:\WindowsImageBackup\ServerNameHere\Backup *DateOfLastBackup*" which contains the 3x vhd files with all the data. FYI there are only 3 folders listed on the ServerNameHere the Backup *DateOfLastBakcup*, Catalog, and SPPMEtadataCahce. As far as I can see across several other servers this is the normal folder structure from Windows Server Backup.

I am currently able to restore back to June of 2016 on the production server.

Davis McCarn

I have to think that something is scripting those backups as the ServerNameHere\Backup *DateOfLastBackup* you name are not part of the native backup, as far as I know.

Daniel Booker

ASKER

There are no scripts other than what Windows Server Backup uses to run its backup. *DateOfLastBackup* i used as example because it will change with ever backup each day.

When i freshly load a server 2008r2 for example. I have to install Windows Server Backup and then when I run it and does everything the same as I've said above. This makes me believe since I've only done 2x things... 1x being just installing the server and 2x being installing (turning on the feature) the Windows server backup with nothing else being done to the server that everything is running exactly the way it should.

Philip Elder

"Backup Drive" ... there should be more than one drive in an off-site rotation? Use one of the alternates for testing.

Daniel Booker

ASKER

He does not use rotating / alternate hard drives. The data for the offsite he has does not go back months only days. We are straying away from the problem at hand though.

We need to figure out how we can duplicate the backup drive the way it is to get the months of data it goes back and be able to restore it on another machine.

Davis McCarn

The safest way to do that would be to do a sector-by-sector clone of the backup drive.

Philip Elder

Image the drive using ShadowProtect then use the instant recovery feature to convert the image to VHDX is what comes to mind.

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Daniel Booker

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