Recovering data

When it comes to data recovery, first consider the most functional method: connect the console to the managed machine running the operating system and create the recovery task.

If the managed machine’s operating system fails to start or you need to recover data to bare metal, boot the machine from the bootable media or using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. Then, create a recovery task.

Acronis Universal Restore lets you recover and boot up Windows on dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine.

A Windows system can be brought online in seconds while it is still being recovered. Using the proprietary Acronis Active Restore technology, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 will boot the machine into the operating system found in the backup as if the system were on the physical disk. The system becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. Thus, the system downtime will be minimal.

A dynamic volume can be recovered over an existing volume, to unallocated space of a disk group, or to unallocated space of a basic disk. To learn more about recovering dynamic volumes, please turn to the Microsoft LDM (Dynamic volumes) section.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows has the ability to recover a disk (volume) backup to a new virtual machine of any of the following types: VMware Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, Parallels Workstation or Citrix XenServer Open Virtual Appliance (OVA). The virtual appliance can then be imported to XenServer. The VMware Workstation machine can be converted to the open virtualization format (OVF) using the VMware OVF tool. With Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for ESX/ESXi, you can create a new virtual machine on the respective virtualization server.

You might need to prepare target disks before recovery. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 includes a handy disk management utility which enables you to create or delete volumes, change a disk partitioning style, create a disk group and perform other disk management operations on the target hardware, both under the operating system and on bare metal. To find out more about Acronis Disk Director LV, see the Disk management section.

To create a recovery task, perform the following steps

  General  

Task name

[Optional] Enter a unique name for the recovery task. A conscious name lets you quickly identify the task among the others.

Task credentials

[Optional] The task will run on behalf of the user who is creating the task. You can change the task account credentials if necessary. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box .

  What to recover  

Archive

Select the archive to recover data from.

Data type

Applies to: disk recovery

Choose the type of data you need to recover from the selected disk backup.

Content

Select the backup and content to be recovered.

Access credentials

[Optional] Provide credentials for the archive location if the task account does not have the right to access it. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

  Where to recover  

This section appears after the required backup is selected and the type of data to recover is defined. The parameters you specify here depend on the type of data being recovered.

Disks

Volumes

Acronis Active Restore

[OPTIONAL] The Acronis Active Restore check box is available when recovering Windows starting from Windows 2000. Acronis Active Restore brings a system online immediately after the recovery is started. The operating system boots from the backup image and the machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. The data required to serve incoming requests is recovered with the highest priority; everything else is recovered in the background.

See Acronis Active Restore for details.

Files

You may have to specify credentials for the destination. Skip this step when operating on a machine booted with bootable media.

Access credentials

[Optional] Provide credentials for the destination if the task credentials do not enable recovery of the selected data. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

  When to recover  

Recover

Select when to start recovery. The task can start immediately after its creation, be sc
heduled for a specified date and time in the future or simply saved for manual execution.

  [Optional] Acronis Universal Restore  

Applies to: Windows OS and system volume recovery

Universal Restore

Use the Acronis Universal Restore when you need to recover and boot up Windows on dissimilar hardware.

Automatic drivers search

Specify where the program should search for HAL, mass storage and network adapter drivers. Acronis Universal Restore will install drivers that better fit the target hardware.

Mass storage drivers to install anyway

[Optional] Specify the mass storage drivers manually if the automatic drivers search has not found the appropriate drivers. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

  Recovery options  

Settings

[Optional] Customize the recovery operation by configuring the recovery options, such as pre/post recovery commands, recovery priority, error handling or notification options. If you do nothing in this section, the default values will be used.

After any of the settings is changed against the default value, a new line that displays the newly set value appears. The setting status changes from Default to Custom. Should you modify the setting again, the line will display the new value unless the new value is the default one. When the default value is set, the line disappears and so you always see only the settings that differ from the default values in the Settings section.

Clicking Reset to default resets all the settings to default values.

After you complete all the required steps, click OK to create the commit creating of the recovery task.

Recovering data