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Tip: Create and Restore Shadow Copies on Windows Server 2008

Create Shadow Copies
To create a shadow copy on an NTFS volume with shared folders, follow these steps:
1. Start Computer Management. If necessary, connect to a remote computer.
2. In the console tree, expand Storage and then select Disk Management. The volumes configured on the selected computer are displayed in the details pane.
3. Right-click Disk Management, point to All Tasks, and then select Configure Shadow Copies.
4. On the Shadow Copies tab, select the volume you want to work within the “Select A Volume” list.
5. Click Settings to configure the maximum size of all shadow copies for this volume and to change the default schedule. When you’re finished, click OK twice.
6. If necessary, click Enable after you’ve configured the volume for shadow copying. When prompted to confirm this action, click Yes. This creates the first shadow copy and sets the schedule for later shadow copies.
Note that if you create a run schedule when configuring the shadow copy settings, shadow copying is enabled automatically for the volume when you click OK to close the Settings dialog box.

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Restore Shadow Copies
Users on client computers access shadow copies of individual shared folders using the Previous Versions or Shadow Copy client. The best way to access shadow copies on a client computer is to follow these steps:
1. Right-click the share for which you want to access previous file versions, choose Properties and then click the Previous Versions tab.
2. Then select the folder version that you want to work with. Each folder has a date and time stamp.
3. Then click the button corresponding to the action you want to perform:

  • Click Open to open the shadow copy in Windows Explorer.
  • Click Copy to display the Copy Items dialog box, which lets you copy the snapshot image of the folder to the location you specify.
  • Click Restore to roll back the shared folder to its state at the time of the snapshot image you selected.

From the Microsoft Press book Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant by William R. Stanek.

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