Vista - Restore an file from a complete backup

I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an external
USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight I
accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go to
restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This seems
rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore for a
complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

For individual file restore, you must use the file backup function
Complete PC backup is an imaging program

"Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
>I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an external
> USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight I
> accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go to
> restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This seems
> rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore for a
> complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and restore
individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I cannot even mount
the VHD files in Virtual PC.

Thanks Cal Bear, but I can't help but think NT Backup was a more complete
product. Very disapointed.... again.

Cheers for your help though.

"Cal Bear '66" wrote:

> For individual file restore, you must use the file backup function
> Complete PC backup is an imaging program
>
> "Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
> >I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an external
> > USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight I
> > accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go to
> > restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This seems
> > rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore for a
> > complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>

Ben wrote:
> So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and
> restore individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I
> cannot even mount the VHD files in Virtual PC.

Oh wow! If you paid 350 pounds for a copy of Vista, you really got ripped.
You should try to return it and buy one for about half that.

Top tip guys, from another forum... use winimage to open the vhd file and
copy the individual file you need from the image created with complete pc
backup. )

"LG" wrote:

> Ben wrote:
> > So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and
> > restore individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I
> > cannot even mount the VHD files in Virtual PC.
>
> Oh wow! If you paid 350 pounds for a copy of Vista, you really got ripped.
> You should try to return it and buy one for about half that.
>
>
>

You got BOTH complete pc backup AND file backup for your 350 pounds

File backup at the top of the screen, complete pc backup at the bottom


"Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3635D3E4-FDF1-46F9-8D4C-23417D06EC94@microsoft.com...
> So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and restore
> individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I cannot even mount
> the VHD files in Virtual PC.
>
> Thanks Cal Bear, but I can't help but think NT Backup was a more complete
> product. Very disapointed.... again.
>
> Cheers for your help though.
>
> "Cal Bear '66" wrote:
>
>> For individual file restore, you must use the file backup function
>> Complete PC backup is an imaging program
>>
>> "Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
>> >I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an external
>> > USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight I
>> > accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go to
>> > restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This seems
>> > rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore for a
>> > complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>

Ben,

It's an option when you start the backup.
"Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3635D3E4-FDF1-46F9-8D4C-23417D06EC94@microsoft.com...
> So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and restore
> individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I cannot even
> mount
> the VHD files in Virtual PC.
>
> Thanks Cal Bear, but I can't help but think NT Backup was a more complete
> product. Very disapointed.... again.
>
> Cheers for your help though.
>
> "Cal Bear '66" wrote:
>
>> For individual file restore, you must use the file backup function
>> Complete PC backup is an imaging program
>>
>> "Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
>> >I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an
>> >external
>> > USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight
>> > I
>> > accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go
>> > to
>> > restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This
>> > seems
>> > rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore
>> > for a
>> > complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>

Ben, have you tried restoring a previous version of the file from a shadow
copy? Right-click the folder where the file was stored, and then click
Restore Previous Versions. From here you should see a list of that folder
from various points of time. You can select the most recent folder (at the
top of the list) and then open the folder to view contents. Your file should
be there.


Also, there is a way to mount the vhd file but it's complicated. I'm
resposting a response I provided earlier below:

There is a way to mount the vhd file as a "virtual" disk and grab
individual files. There are a couple blogs out there that cover the
procedure. You need Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 2's VHDMMOUNT tool. The
two articles below will walk you through this process:

http://community.bartdesmet.net/blog...9/02/4385.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy...01/734435.aspx (allows
you to double-click the VHD to mount it)

Note: I never could get the procedure in the first article to work for me as
written. I had to choose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my
computer" on the wizard page named "Browse for driver software on your
computer." Assuming you run the registry update and install the driver
correctly, you can navigate to the .vhd file in Explorer, right-click it,
and then click Mount. You will see the volume appear in Disk Management. If
the volume shows up as RAW, assign a drive letter to it. Now you can browse
the .vhd as a live volume on your computer.



--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Want to learn more about Windows file and storage technologies? Visit our
team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/default.aspx.
"Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
>I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an
>external
> USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight I
> accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go to
> restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This
> seems
> rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore for
> a
> complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

With commercial image backup programs like Acronis, it has been possible
like forever to restore individual files from a backup image, and to make
incremental image backups. It seems somewhat unreasonable to expect someone
to backup their computer twice, when the it would be technically possible to
restore a single file from the backup image. I was very disappointed too to
find out how limited the image backup is in Vista. The best solution is
still to buy a third party image backup program, Ultimate or not...

"Cal Bear '66" <xxx@xxx.org> wrote in message
news:%23Hgvk2IfHHA.2376@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
You got BOTH complete pc backup AND file backup for your 350 pounds

File backup at the top of the screen, complete pc backup at the bottom


"Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3635D3E4-FDF1-46F9-8D4C-23417D06EC94@microsoft.com...
> So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and restore
> individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I cannot even
> mount
> the VHD files in Virtual PC.
>
> Thanks Cal Bear, but I can't help but think NT Backup was a more complete
> product. Very disapointed.... again.
>
> Cheers for your help though.
>
> "Cal Bear '66" wrote:
>
>> For individual file restore, you must use the file backup function
>> Complete PC backup is an imaging program
>>
>> "Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
>> >I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an
>> >external
>> > USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight
>> > I
>> > accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go
>> > to
>> > restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This
>> > seems
>> > rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore
>> > for a
>> > complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>

Hi Charles,

If you do the "Back Up Files" rather than the "Complete PC Backup" it
doesn't back up everything. Whats more, its starts an automatic backup
routine which is no use to me I'm affraid. I need to be able to backup my
whole PC, but be able to recover individual files from it too. NT backup
allowed you to do all of this, including scheduling of automatic backups if
you desired. This new way of backing up is a real step backwards (if you'll
excuse the punn)

I am very much a Microsoft man, but I really am finding it difficult to
evanglise about Vista. Its more irritating than leading the way, but I guess
MS will be able to sort many of the niggles with SP1.... again. )

"Charles W Davis" wrote:

> Ben,
>
> It's an option when you start the backup.
> "Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:3635D3E4-FDF1-46F9-8D4C-23417D06EC94@microsoft.com...
> > So for my £350 of Vista ultimate I cannot backup my full pc and restore
> > individual files from that backup, that is really poor. I cannot even
> > mount
> > the VHD files in Virtual PC.
> >
> > Thanks Cal Bear, but I can't help but think NT Backup was a more complete
> > product. Very disapointed.... again.
> >
> > Cheers for your help though.
> >
> > "Cal Bear '66" wrote:
> >
> >> For individual file restore, you must use the file backup function
> >> Complete PC backup is an imaging program
> >>
> >> "Ben" <Ben@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:4D64BACA-EC1A-4C06-B4D2-EAE4CDA24005@microsoft.com...
> >> >I have Vista Ultimate and have been doing complete PC backups to an
> >> >external
> >> > USB disk, all of which have reportedly worked without problem. Tonight
> >> > I
> >> > accidently deleted a picture that i need to get back. However when I go
> >> > to
> >> > restore, the only option I have is to restore the whole computer? This
> >> > seems
> >> > rediculous... surely I can pick and choose the files I want to restore
> >> > for a
> >> > complete PC backup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >>
>