How to restore an backup of system after re-installing windows

[ambidexterous]

Hi,

I installed Symantec System Recovery

backed up my system.

It produced a file\folder package as seen in the attachment (capture001.png).

I then restored my system to factory defaults 

This is esentially a complete re-install of windows from a recovery partition

I then did the experimentation that I needed to do with "fresh" system

I then re-installed Symantec System Recovery and was looking to restore back to the original backed up version, but am not sure how to do that.

The obvious route of using "Recover my Computer" is intended for when the backups have been taken on the same system. In my case I've done the windows re-install in between so obviously in that table there's no backups listed. Then I thought there must be a way to import the backup I have stored (capture001.png)

There's Recover my Computer\Tasks\Custom recovery option which brings up a wizard that requires to provide a single recovery point filename

and expected filetype is V2I

In my backu up folder I have 3 of those (I asume tehre were 3 partitions backed up in the process of doing full system backup)

So which one should I pick? (Capture002.png)

Should be the C Drive I suppose, but I'm not sure. I wonder if there's some magic way to restore all 3 of the files at the same time?

Also if I'm restoring the C: should I be choosing all of these options (Capture003.png) ?

How would this restore work if I'm restoring the system of which I'm currently running of? Does it reboot and then do some magic before windows has loaded? Surely windows c drive cannot be overwritten while OS is runing of off the same drive.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

[criley]

Bit confused by your post to be honest ...

It seems you have already restored your operating system using your recovery partition. Is there 'data' (i.e. not operating system files) that you need to restore now? If yes, right-click on the v2i file and choose the mount option. This will mount the recovery point as a temporary volume. You can then copy the data back to C (or whatever volume you choose).

Hope this helps.

[ambidexterous]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for taking tim to reply to me.

You're right I've already restored my system. However it would take me hours to re-install all the software I need to get my work done. 

The option you suggest will give me access to my files, but that's not what I'm after. Files ins't the issue here.

What I want is all my software installed and configured the way it needs to be. I would need hours to do all of that. Obviously just copying over the program files is a no go, since there's lot of stuff that gets written to registry and other common windows folders etc. during software installation.

That is why I used symentec tool my intention was to:

1) save the state of the machine using symantec

2) restore to factory defaults (loose all the programs and everything)

3) test what I needed to test on a fresh machine OS only

4) resore back to the way things were on step 1)

Does that make sense now?

[criley]

2) restore to factory defaults (loose all the programs and everything)

If you did the restore using System Recovery (and this is what the product is designed to do), you would not lose anything (assuming of course the backup is recent). Any reason why you are not choosing to restore the machine with SSR?

[ambidexterous]

Appologies I confuesed you I should have said 2) reset to factory defaults - it's an option that is built into the laptop on a hidden partition. Reformats the drive, reinstalls fresh copy of windows from the recovery partition and sets the settings and drivers.

When you say SSR do you mean Symantec System Recovery ?

If yes, then this is exactly what I want to do.

I now want to restore back to the backup I took with Symantec System Recovery before I did that reset.

The trouble is that when I click on Backup -> Recover My Computer I don't see that entry for the backup I took

The obvious reason for not seeing that entry is that Symantec System Recovery was reinstalled on the fresh windows so it doesn't know anything about the backup I created prior to re-installing windows (factory reset)

All I have is the backup directory with 3 files and custom restore only allows me to restore one of them not all 3.

I could probably mount the c volume and copy over the program data for symantec system restore from the previous version to this new one and that entry would possibly appear.

But before doing that I wanted to know if there's any non-hacky way to achieve this.

I would think it's a common scenario, but apparently not.

[criley]

Yes, SSR = Symantec System Recovery.

Let me try to explain further ...

SSR is designed to protect (backup/restore) an entire machine in the event of failure. If you encounter a failure, the idea is that boot from the SRD (recovery disk) and restore your backup which should result in your machine being in the same state it was at the time of the most recent backup (this includes the operating system, program files and any user data).

By choosing to do a factory reset of your machine, you are almost making your SSR backup redundant. If you only wanted to restore 'user data' instead of installed program files, you could still easily achieve this.

As you said previously, you cannot just restore/copy back your program files as installed applications have registry entries and other changes in the Windows and Program Files directories. This just wont work in my opinion and I would not recommend it.

The trouble is that when I click on Backup -> Recover My Computer I don't see that entry for the backup I took

You can select File in the dropdown box under View by, then you can browse to your recovery points (backup images).

[ambidexterous]

Right, so this is exactly the reason I chose SSR - my expectation was if I dod the backup I will be then able to restore "completely" just as you explained.

I had to do the factory reset because of support issues I'm having with my laptop and it was a last resort troubleshooting step as per instructions from laptop's support team. I was pretty sure before doing the reset that it will not solve my problem that is the reason I took the copy using SSR - so I can go back to where I was. So I did the reset - I replied to the customer support that it didn't help and now I'm ready to restore back. Does that make sense?

Anyway from what you wrote I understand that there is a way to achieve this restore using the windows interface of SSR? No recovery disk in my case needed correct?

I attached screenshot Capture006.png - is that what you meant?

So when I click Browse and navigate to where my backup is there's 3 files* and i'm only allowed to select one.

That's what I'm confused about.

The system backup that I did created 1 file for each of the partiotions. To be clear I didn't even know that I have 3 partitions (I assume the other 2 are were just hidden ones that were not visible through windows explorer and are there for windows\device recovery purposes).

I assume I can select Surface3_C_Drive001 and then click [Recover Now] and that would restore all I had on the C drive (os, content, program files) and then once that is done I can repeat the process for the 2 hidden partitions ?

What will happen after I click [Recover Now] - will it reboot and do the actual restore from the "dos" pre-os space?

*For clarification after I took the backup originally it looked like in the Capture008.PNG - so all the 3 partitions were sort of one in one single recovery point. That's a screenshot that I took before I did the reset - currently this table is empty.

[criley]

I will try and keep this simple.... the following article explains the steps required in order to restore a machine (applies to all supported versions of Windows):

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH129112

Hope this helps.

[ambidexterous]

Ok, so you're saying to restore multiple drives I need

1. to create the recovery disk.
2. start from the recovery disk 
3. format \clean all drives I'm about to restore
4. using ssr startup disk load the backup files I have on external drive (I asume that drive will be available from the pre OS SSR environment)
5. and there I will be able to add aditional drives not just c to restore
6. I can try that

The only problem is that I can't create the recovery disk. That option seems to be grayed out. See attached screenshot.

[criley]

The only problem is that I can't create the recovery disk. That option seems to be grayed out. See attached screenshot.

Hmm. What version of Windows is this?

When you installed SSR, you must have been presented with a warning about the recovery disk creator not being installed. Can you recall what that said?