How to recover a file from a client PC backup on Windows Server 2012 r2 ?

RimBlock · 25 Mar 2014 at 01:44

I have some client PC backups on my VM home server running Windows 2012 r2 [evaluation] on top of ESXi. I built up a second VM server with Windows 2012r2 and have rebuilt my PC with Windows 7 Pro (clean install from CD).

I have a couple of files that used to be on the PC I would like to get back from the backup on the old server but I do not seem to be able to restore them on the old server "Restore must be run from the client computer". I do not wish to restore the whole PC from the backup and the PC is currently connected to the new servers domain.

All I want to do is to look at the client computers backup and pull out a couple of files on to the server.

How can I go about doing this ?.

Thanks
RB

ajf · 26 Mar 2014 at 11:56

Is the client PC a physical or virtual machine?
How was the backup created?

anything I don't mind · 26 Mar 2014 at 15:13

Windows backup is generally just a full system state backup. For individual file recovery you would need commerical backup software.

What you could do is clone your new windows machine, recover the entire backup over the top of the clone and then copy the file out to the correct server.

But recovering windows backups over windows virtual servers is not ideal but it is possible, ive done it before in a dr test. Used a file based backup of a server and restored the contents over the top of a hyperv virtual machine.

RimBlock · 27 Mar 2014 at 09:51

I have previously restored single files from roaming profiles which were part of a server backup and presumed the same would be possible possible for a client pc backup made from the same server. Disappointed but not really surprised.

If I built a win7 vm, how would I be able to select the right client backup or does the restore boot disk let you choose from what is available on the server (I.e. the restores are not locked to the machine they were taken from).

Thanks.