Can't find files to restore from a differential backup

[MLesniak]

We have recently implemented Backup Exec 15 and I am still familiarising myself with the application.  I have had a couple of instances where a user has asked for a single file to be restored that was both created and deleted between full backups. In both cases the file was created on one day and deleted on the next day. There  was a successful differential backup between the creation date and the deletion date (but no full backup). I would have expected to be able to restore the file from the differential backup but in both cases my search resulted in no files being found. (If I widen my search criteria  to include other files, that presumably WERE on a full backup I can find them).

I feel that I may be missing something when searching for the files to restore, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would be grateful to hear them.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

When you select a particular file from the restore selection list, you would be presented with all the backups be it full/differential which contain the file. If you only find the file in a full backup, then it is not captured in a differential backup

[Colin_Weaver]

Do a test run of a full backup

Create  a couple of new files somewhere specific and edit / modify at least one existing files so you can see a change of existing files too.

run a differential backup

 Check that if you browse into the differential backup set you can see the new files and then browse into both the differential backup set and the full backup set to check that the modified file shows some differences.

Then test with your search for the new files (it might be that for some reason the search is not working where a manual browse does)

If the search shows your new files, then delete the files and run a 2nd differential and see if this affects your search results (as the search might be operating only against the latest backup chain)

Of course it might be that the file you are interested in was created and deleted in the same day so would not be on the differential anyway.