Exporting Disks

You can restore computer disks from volume-level backups and convert them to disks of the VMDK, VHD or VHDX format.

During disks restore, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows creates standard virtual disks that can be used by VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V VMs.

• When you restore a disk in the VMDK format, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows creates a pair of files that make up the VM virtual disk: a descriptor file and file with the virtual disk content.
• When you restore a disk in the VHD/VHDX format, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows creates a file of the VHD or VHDX format.

You can save converted disks locally on any server added to the backup infrastructure or place disks on a datastore connected to an ESXi host (for VMDK disk format only). VMDK disks can be restored as thin provision and thick disks:

• Disks restored to a datastore are saved in the thin provisioned format.
• Disks restored to a server are saved in the thick format.

VHD/VHDX disks are always restored as dynamically expanding.

Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows supports batch disk restore. For example, if you choose to restore 2 computer disks, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows will convert them to 2 virtual disks and store these disks in the specified location.

The procedure of volume-level restore from a standalone Veeam Agent backup does not differ from the same procedure for a backup created with Veeam Agent that operates in the managed mode. To learn more, see the Exporting Disks section in the Veeam Agent Management Guide.