Restoring Data: Options

File Manager: Restoring Data: Options Page

Previous Top Next

Once you select the data to restore, the wizard helps you choose where you want to place the restored data, which point in time to use, and what to do if the files you are restoring already exist.

The options are split across two pages. Once you have finished changing the first page of options, click Next to get to the second options page. Once you have finished with the second page of options, click Next to get to the action confirmation page.

Location to place restored folders and files (page 1):

You can choose to either place the restored files back into the same place that they were in when they were backed up, or you can choose to restore to a different folder of your choosing. If you are restoring a historical version of your data instead of the current version, you probably want to choose to restore the data to an alternate location.

Version control (page 1):

This group of options controls whether you restore the most recent version of your data or some historical version. How many historical versions will be available to restore depend on what your versioning settings were when you backed up your data.

TIP: If you just want to restore your files exactly as they existed at a certain date and time, use the Data as it existed at or before choice and leave the other options set to their default settings.

There are three different methods to choose from to control which versions to restore:

· Most recent data: The most recent version of your data will be restored.

· Data as it existed at or before: Use this option to perform a point-in-time restore. A point-in-time restore is where you restore your files as they would have existed at some particular point in time. With this option, the most recent version that is before the indicated date and time will be restored.

· Data matching date nearest to: This is an advanced setting and typically should not be used. It indicates that the version of the file that is closest to the indicated date and time should be restored. With this option it is possible that the version that will be restored will be past the indicated point in time.

There are three options that adjust how deleted files are treated. Deleted files are files that were backed up and then later deleted from your local computer, and are now being retained in the backup according to your versioning settings. The three options are:

· Include deleted files in search checkbox: If this box is not checked, then deleted files will not be restored (even if they were selected on the data selection page).

· However, exclude deleted files not matching point in time checkbox: This option is only relevant if the Include deleted files in search option is checked. If this box is checked, then any files that did not actually exist on your computer at the date and time indicated in the version control settings will not be restored. In other words, any files that were deleted after the date and time will not be restored.

For example, say that a file named 'report.docx' was backed up on July 1st, 2000, and then it was later deleted from your computer on August 15th, 2000. If you performed a point-in-time restore for July 20th, 2000, then the 'report.docx' file would be restored, whether or not this option was checked. However, if you performed a point-in-time restore for August 20th, 2000, then this file would only be restored if this option was not checked.

To perform a point-in-time restore, you normally want to leave this option checked. This will ensure that any files that were deleted from your local system at the given date and time will not be restored.

· Include the deleted date and time in the restored filename checkbox: If this option is checked, then any deleted files that are restored will be restored using a modified filename that appends the following to the name of the file: [Deleted Month, Day Year]

Finally, the Include the version date and time in the restored filename option can be used to include the restored version's timestamp in the restored file's filename. For example, if you are restoring a historical file named 'report.docx' that was uploaded on July 1st, 2000, then it will actually restore the data to a file named 'report [historical version July 1st, 2000].docx.' This option is useful if you want to restore the historical versions of certain files back into their original locations, but you do not want to overwrite the current versions of those files.

Incremental backup cache (page 1):

If you check this option, then the data will not actually be restored. Instead, the software will rebuild the incremental backup cache. This is useful if you are resuming incremental backups after a complete system crash (see Restoring After a System Crash).

How existing files should be treated (page 2):

This determines how files that already exist in the restore location that have the same name as a file being restored should be treated. You can choose from the following options:

· Prompt for action: Every time a conflict occurs, a dialog box will be shown presenting the details of each file (the file already on your computer and the file being restored) asking what you want to do.

· Overwrite without asking: Files with the same name that already exist on your computer will be overwritten with the data restored from the backup without asking you for confirmation.

· Skip without asking: Files with the same name that already exist on your computer will not be restored.

· Move to this folder: Files with the same name that already exist on your computer will be moved to a different folder (that you specify) before the file is restored from the backup.

Subdirectory creation options (page 2):

These options determine how the directory structure within the alternate restore location should be re-created. These options are not applicable if you are restoring the files to their original locations. There are three ways to choose from:

· Flat: All files that you are restoring from any folder will be placed into the same directory. No subdirectories will be created, and any files with the same filename will be renamed to avoid conflicts. Typically you would not want to select this option.

· Minimalized: This indicates that any common parent directories in the list of directories you have selected for restore will not be created (only the subdirectories needed to differentiate the files being restored will be created). This concept is best illustrated with an example.

Say that you had selected the following three folders for restoring:

Users\Analyst\My Documents
Users\Analyst\My Documents\My Pictures
Users\Analyst\My Documents\My Music

Also, say that you had chosen to restore the files to C:\Restored.

Since "Users\Analyst\My Documents" was a common parent directory of all of the folders, if the data was restored with this option then it would restore files in ...\My Documents into C:\Restored, restore files in ...\My Documents\My Pictures into C:\Restored\My Pictures, and restore files in ...\My Documents\My Music into C:\Restored\My Music.

Typically, this is the option that you want to select.

· Full reconstruction: This option will cause all subdirectories to be recreated. Continuing the example above, if this option was selected, in the example the data would be restored to:

C:\Restored\Users\Analyst\My Documents
C:\Restored\Users\Analyst\My Documents\My Pictures
C:\Restored\Users\Analyst\My Documents\My Music