How to Restore a Windows Backup Set

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This topic explains how to restore a Windows Backup set.

Procedure

To restore a Windows backup set

  1. Start Backup in Advanced Mode.

    For detailed instructions, see the following procedures:

  2. Click the Restore and Manage Media tab and Expand File in the console tree.

  3. Set your file restoration preference. Click Tools, click Options, select the Restore tab, and select the criteria for overwriting files.

    Although the default setting is Do not replace the file on my computer, you will probably find that selecting Always replace the file on my computer provides the greatest stability and consistency among Windows Server 2003 files by ensuring all the file versions after the restore match exactly what they were when the backup was originally made.

  4. Expand the backup media that you want to restore.

    Selecting the media to restore

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    Note

    If the correct media does not display under File, you might have to rebuild the catalog. For information, see "Rebuilding a Catalog for a Restore" in Using Backup to Restore Your Data.

  5. Select the check boxes next to the drive letters for your boot partition and system partition (frequently the same drive), and then select the check box next to System State.

    Important

    To correctly restore all your Windows Server 2003 operating system components, a Windows backup set must contain the System State data, the boot partition, and the system partition, and must have been backed up as part of the same backup job.

    Selecting the boot and system partition, and also the System State data

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  6. In the Restore files to list, select the location to where you want the files restored. By default, the location specified is Original location.

  7. Click Start Restore. You will be notified that the current System State data will be overwritten unless you want to restore to a different location. To continue, click OK.

  8. In Confirm Restore, click Advanced to specify advanced restore options, or click OK to start the restore. For more information about the advanced restore options in Backup, see "Selecting the Advanced Options for a Restore" in Using Backup to Restore Your Data

  9. If Backup prompts you for the location of the backup file to use in the restore, select the correct backup file name, and then click OK.

  10. After the restore is completed, make sure that it was successful. For more information about how to check the success of a restore, see "Checking the Success of a Completed Restore Job" in Using Backup to Restore Your Data.

  11. After you verify that your Windows backup set is successfully restored, in the Restore Progress dialog box, click Close. You are then prompted to restart your computer to complete the restore. Click Yes to restart.

    Important

    If you perform this procedure as part of rebuilding a server, after restarting your computer, you might experience errors that indicate that one or more services cannot start. These errors occur because when you restore the Windows backup set, you also restore the original registry of the server that you are rebuilding. That registry might include entries that try to start services that are not yet reinstalled, such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Ignore the errors. These errors should be resolved when you finish rebuilding the computer.

For More Information

For more information about restoring Windows backup sets, see Restoring Windows Backup Sets.