You can restore individual Microsoft Windows guest OS files from the storage snapshot. Veeam Backup Free Edition supports file-level restore for the following Microsoft Windows file systems:
- FAT
- NTFS
- ReFS
When you perform guest OS file restore, you must select an ESX(i) host in your virtual environment. Veeam Backup & Replication creates a clone/virtual copy of the storage snapshot on which the VM disks reside and mounts the clone/virtual copy to the selected ESX(i) host as a new LUN/volume.
After that, Veeam Backup Free Edition accesses the configuration file of the VM (VMX) on the mounted clone/virtual copy and uses this configuration file to register a temporary VM on the selected ESX(i) host. Disks of the restored VM are mounted to this temporary VM. After disks are mounted, you can copy necessary VM guest OS files and folders to their initial location, local machine drive or save them in a network shared folder.
Before you start file-level restore, check prerequisites. Then use the File Level Restore wizard to restore necessary files and folders.
