- Restoring using the Rescue Media
- Restoring to the same Hardware
- Restoring to Different Hardware
- Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware
Overview
If a computer cannot boot into Windows, e.g. Windows failing to boot or hardware failure, it won't be connected to SiteBackup for a remote restore to take place. Additionally, a user would not be able to use the SiteBackup Agent within Windows to perform a restore.
In these cases another way to restore the system is required, this is where the rescue media is used. This is a bootable environment that can be used to boot a system and perform a recovery, even when Windows can't boot. This article contains more information about creating the rescue media.
Restoring using the Rescue Media
First, the system where the restore will be performed should be booted using the rescue media, whether this is restoring to the same hardware, in the case of Windows not booting, or new hardware in the event of a hardware failure. If you are using the rescue media on new hardware, that has not been managed by SiteBackup, additional drivers may be required; this article contains more information about managing drivers.
Restoring to the same Hardware
Once the computer has been booted with the rescue media, the WinPE Agent will be displayed. If this hardware has previously been managed by Macrium SiteBackup the WinPE Agent will display the name of the agent computer:
By default, the 'Restore' button in the WinPE Agent will be disabled until a user with the relevant permissions has authenticated.
The 'Launch Reflect' button will always be available in the rescue media, this ensures that a restore can be performed, more manually, even when a connection to a SiteBackup server cannot be established
Click 'Log in' to authenticate with a user account that has been added to the SiteManager Platform settings.
In the window that opens, enter the credentials for the account that will be used to authenticate in the WinPE Agent:
Assuming that the user has the relevant permissions, the 'Restore Agent' button will become active, select 'Restore Agent' to start a guided restore. In the window that opens, since the system is being managed by SiteBackup, 'Restore detected agent' will display the name of this agent along with information relating to how many backups exist for the agent:
Click 'Restore' to proceed with the restore.
Macrium Reflect will then launch in the rescue media, the repository share will be automatically mapped, and the relevant backups for the selected agent will be displayed on the 'Existing Backups' page.
Select the backup that will be restored, then select 'Restore'.
The first page of the restore wizard displays the partitions that are contained in the disk image and the partitions that are contained on the destination disk. Partitions can then be copied from the disk image to the destination:
| Option | Description | |
| Select a different source disk... |
If the disk image contains multiple disks, this option enables a different source disk to be selected. Disks must be restored one at a time. |
|
| Select a different target disk... | If the system where the restore is being performed contains multiple disks, this option can be used to change the disk that will be used as a destination for this restore. | |
| Copy Partitions | Shrink or extend to fill the target disk | If the destination disk is a different size from the source disk, selecting 'Copy Partitions' will display this option. Selecting this option will automatically resize partitions to use all unpartitioned space on a larger disk, or fit a smaller disk. |
| Exact partition offset and length | If the destination disk is a different size from the source disk, selecting 'Copy Partitions' will display this option. This option will copy the partitions to the same location on the destination disk, they will also retain their original size. | |
| Erase Disk | Erases any partitions that are located on the destination disk in the wizard. The disk will not actually be erased until the restore starts. | |
| Delete Partition | Deletes the selected partition on the destination disk in the wizard. The partition will not actually be deleted until the restore starts. | |
| Undo | Undo the last activity. | |
| Float Left | This moves the partition to the left-most unpartitioned space on the destination disk. | |
| Float Right | This moves the partition to the right-most unpartitioned space on the destination disk. | |
| Fill Space | Expand the partition to use all unpartitioned space to the right of the partition. | |
| Layout | Opens the 'Partition Properties' window for more granular control over partition properties. | |
The final page of the wizard displays a summary of the restore that is about to take place:
Select 'Finish' to start the restore. If partitions will be overwritten during the restore, a warning dialogue box will be displayed that requires confirmation to start the restore:
Once the restore has been completed, the system will restart automatically.
Restoring to Different Hardware
Once the computer has been booted with the rescue media, the WinPE Agent will be displayed. Since this hardware is not associated with an existing agent that is being managed by SiteBackup, 'Recovery: X' will be shown next to 'Agent':
By default, the 'Restore' button in the WinPE Agent will be disabled until a user with the relevant permissions has authenticated.
The 'Launch Reflect' button will always be available in the rescue media, this ensures that a restore can be performed, more manually, even when a connection to a SiteBackup server cannot be established
Click 'Log in' to authenticate with a user account that has been added to the SiteManager Platform settings.
In the window that opens, enter the credentials for the account that will be used to authenticate in the WinPE Agent:
Assuming that the user has the relevant permissions, the 'Restore Agent' button will become active, select 'Restore Agent' to start a guided restore. In the window that opens, since the hardware is not associated with an agent that is being managed by SiteBackup 'Restore detected agent' will show 'No matching agent found'.
Instead, the dropdown menu can be used to select an agent computer whose backups will be restored:
Select the agent computer in question then select 'Restore' to proceed with the restore.
Macrium Reflect will then launch in the rescue media, the repository share will be automatically mapped, and the relevant backups for the selected agent will be displayed on the 'Existing Backups' page.
Select the backup that will be restored, then select 'Restore'.
The first page of the restore wizard displays the partitions that are contained in the disk image and the partitions that are contained on the destination disk. Partitions can then be copied from the disk image to the destination:
| Option | Description | |
| Select a different source disk... |
If the disk image contains multiple disks, this option enables a different source disk to be selected. Disks must be restored one at a time. |
|
| Select a different target disk... | If the system where the restore is being performed contains multiple disks, this option can be used to change the disk that will be used as a destination for this restore. | |
| Copy Partitions | Shrink or extend to fill the target disk | If the destination disk is a different size from the source disk, selecting 'Copy Partitions' will display this option. Selecting this option will automatically resize partitions to use all unpartitioned space on a larger disk, or fit a smaller disk. |
| Exact partition offset and length | If the destination disk is a different size from the source disk, selecting 'Copy Partitions' will display this option. This option will copy the partitions to the same location on the destination disk, they will also retain their original size. | |
| Erase Disk | Erases any partitions that are located on the destination disk in the wizard. The disk will not actually be erased until the restore starts. | |
| Delete Partition | Deletes the selected partition on the destination disk in the wizard. The partition will not actually be deleted until the restore starts. | |
| Undo | Undo the last activity. | |
| Float Left | This moves the partition to the left-most unpartitioned space on the destination disk. | |
| Float Right | This moves the partition to the right-most unpartitioned space on the destination disk. | |
| Fill Space | Expand the partition to use all unpartitioned space to the right of the partition. | |
| Layout | Opens the 'Partition Properties' window for more granular control over partition properties. | |
The final page of the wizard displays a summary of the restore that is about to take place:
Select 'Finish' to start the restore. If partitions will be overwritten during the restore, a warning dialogue box will be displayed that requires confirmation to start the restore:
Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware
If the destination hardware is different from the hardware where the image was created, Macrium ReDeploy may need to be run to ensure that operating system is bootable on the new hardware. This article contains more information about running ReDeploy.