Restoring Your Data: An Overview

LiveVault Online Backup Service lets you easily restore any version of your files or the Windows System State/registry that was backed up.

As a user for your company account, you can view restore requests' status and details. However, only users assigned the appropriate capability can request a restore.

What file versions can be restored?

You can restore current or historic versions of files that were backed up and that fall within the data retention period as specified in your service agreement. These include:

The most current backed up versions. The currency of the file depends upon how often the file is scheduled to be backed up and when the file was last changed. For example, if a file is being backed up 24x7 and the file was last changed a week ago, then the most current version is from a week ago. However, if the file is being backed up 24x7 and the file was last changed an hour ago, then the most current version is from an hour ago.
Historic, or previous, backed up versions of the files. LiveVault Online Backup Service guarantees one historic version per day. However, you may have more versions available. Only historic versions that fall within the data retention period as specified in your service agreement are available for restore. For example, if your service agreement is for 30 days of history, then you cannot restore data from two months ago.
Files deleted from your computer, either the most current or historic versions.

Requesting a restore

MyLiveVault makes restoring files easy and convenient. It guides you through each step of the restore process, including:

Choosing the computer whose files you want to restore.
Specifying whether you want to restore current or historic file versions.
Selecting the files that you want to restore.
Specifying whether to deliver the data over the Internet or on media.
For media delivery, providing shipping information.
For Internet delivery, specifying the options for controlling the destination of the restored files, handling files which replace existing files at the destination, and restoring the original NTFS security descriptors of the restored files.

After you submit your restore request, a unique restore identifier is assigned to the restore job, and the job starts automatically.

LiveVault Online Backup Service does not restrict the number of files you can restore within a single restore job. However, you need to consider the following attributes of a restore job as you request a restore. A restore job:

Restores as of a single point in time (current or from one point in time).
For Internet delivery, restores files to their original locations, unless you redirect them.
For Internet delivery, uses a single, configurable method for resolving file name conflicts in the restored files destination (for example, rename or always overwrite).
Restores selected files or the Windows System State/registry. You must create separate restore jobs if you are restoring some of a computer's files and its System State/registry.

Important: If you are restoring your entire computer as part of a disaster recovery, you can restore both the computer's files and System State/Registry as a single restore job that is delivered on media. However, you must perform the restore as part of a full disaster recovery procedure. See Restoring an Entire Computer.

Time-Slice Restore

The MyLiveVault Time-Slice Restore feature enables you to quickly and easily restore historic file versions.

Time-Slice Restore provides an easy-to-use interface that is like Explorer, with a clock and calendar. You specify a date and time, and it displays a tree view of the Agent computer's most current directories and files that were stored in the backup server as of that point in time. You just:

Browse the tree view of the directories and files.
Select the files to restore.

LiveVault Online Backup Service restores the latest version of each selected file that was stored in the backup server as of that date and time.

Note: Historic versions are stored on tape. When you restore historic versions, those files must be retrieved from tape before they can be restored. This means that it takes a bit longer to restore historic versions than current versions.

Monitoring restore jobs

Our Service Operations Center (SOC) provides constant monitoring of your restore operations. However, you can also monitor the progress of restore jobs in MyLiveVault.

When the restore job has completed over the Internet or when the media containing the restored data has shipped, we will send a notification e-mail to the user who requested the restore.

Restore logs

LiveVault Online Backup Service automatically logs the following items for every restore job:

Restore request details, including files selected and options.
All restored files.
All restore failures.
All file renames.

LiveVault Online Backup Service saves these entries to the restore job log located on the computer the data is restored to. You can find the restore job log location on the job's Restore Details form.

Restore does not affect backup

Restore jobs can run while backup is also running. Backup is not interrupted by the restore process.

Restoring NTFS files to a FAT file system volume

It is highly recommended that you restore NTFS files to NTFS file system volumes.

LiveVault Online Backup Service allows you to restore data that was backed up from an NTFS file system volume to a FAT file system volume. However, when you restore an NTFS file to a FAT file system volume, all NTFS-only file properties are lost, such as security-extended attributes. Also, all alternate data streams are lost. If you are restoring a Windows 2000/2003 NTFS file, you may also lose data.

What do you want to restore?

Related Information

Restoring Databases or Applications: Key Considerations
Understanding System State and Registry Restore
Monitoring and Managing Restores: An Overview
Accessing Restored Files
Backing Up and Restoring Sparse Files
Backing Up and Restoring Single Instance Store (SIS) Files
Backing Up and Restoring Directory Junctions and Volume Mount Points
Restoring the Remote Installation Service (RIS) Folder
Restoring the Windows 2000 or 2003 Cluster Database
Understanding Computer Assignments and User Management Capabilities