True image restore enables Backup Exec to restore the contents of directories to what they were at the time of any full or incremental backup. Restore selections in backup sets are made from a view of the directories as they existed at the time of the particular backup. Files that were deleted before the time of the backup are not restored. In true image restore, only the correct versions of files are restored from the appropriate full or incremental backups that contain them. Previous versions are not unnecessarily restored and then overwritten.
When you restore from backup sets that were enabled for true image restore, you do not have to manually select from the previous full backup, and then select the incremental backups one after another. The files that you need are automatically selected from the appropriate backups.
Backup Exec starts collecting the true image restore information beginning with the next full or incremental backup run by the policy after the option is enabled. The true image restore information is collected regardless of whether any files were actually changed.
For true image restore, Backup Exec also collects the information required to detect files and directories that have been moved, renamed, or newly installed from a tar or zip archive. Those files and directories are included in true image restore incremental backups for this policy. Depending on how the files were packaged and how they were installed, some newly installed files are not backed up by normal incremental backups. With true image restore enabled, Backup Exec compares path names with path names from the previous full or incremental backup. If a name is new or changed, the file or directory is backed up.
The following are examples where using true image restore backs up files that would not otherwise be backed up:
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A file named C:\pub\doc is moved to or installed in C:\spec\doc. Here, the archive bit of files and subdirectories inside that directory is unchanged but C:\pub\doc is new in the C:\spec\ directory and is backed up.
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A directory named C:\security\dev\ is renamed as C:\security\devices\. Here, the archive bit of files and subdirectories inside that directory is unchanged but C:\security\devices\ is a new directory and is backed up.
The following table lists the files backed up in the C:\user\doc directory during a series of backups between December 1, 2009 and December 4, 2009:
Table: Example table of files backed up because true image restore is enabled
Assume that you are going to restore the December 4, 2009 version of the C:\user\doc directory.
If you perform a regular restore of the full backup set followed by a regular restore of subsequent incremental backup sets, the restored directory contains all files and directories that ever existed in C:\user\doc from December 1, 2009 (last full backup) through December 4, 2009.
If you perform a true image restore of the December 4, 2009 backup, the restored directory has only the files and directories that existed at the time of the incremental backup on December 4, 2009.
Backup Exec does not restore any of the files that were deleted prior to the December 4, 2009 incremental backup.
The restored directory does not include the dirA subdirectories, even though they were backed up on December 4, 2009. Backup Exec does not restore these directories because they did not exist at the time of the incremental backup, which was the reference for the true image restore.
A true image restore preserves files that are currently in the directory but were not pres
ent when the backup was completed. Assume you created a file named file5 after the incremental backup occurred on December 4, 2009, but before doing the restore.
More Information
About collecting additional information for synthetic backup and true image restore
Best practices for true image restore