This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.

Step 6. Save Restored Files

When the restore process is complete, Veeam Backup & Replication opens the Veeam Backup browser with the file system tree of the restored VM. Note that names of the restored VM hard disks may differ from the original ones.

You can perform the following operations with VM guest OS files in the Veeam Backup browser:

After you finish restoring files, you can close the Veeam Backup browser.

Restoring Files to Original Location

To restore a file or folder to its original location, in the Veeam Backup browser right-click the file or folder and select one of the following commands:

Veeam Backup & Replication will add the RESTORED- prefix to the original file name and store the restored file in the same folder where the original file resides.

If the file with the RESTORED- prefix already exists in the original location, Veeam Backup & Replication will name the restored file in the following format: RESTORED-<filename>__YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.

Step 6. Save Restored FilesImportant!

Restore to the original location may fail for the following reasons:

  • VMware Tools are not installed on the target VM.
  • You have excluded the system disk from the VM backup.
  • Application-aware processing is not supported for the Microsoft Windows OS of the original VM.

To restore guest OS files in such situation, you can use 1-click file-level restore or copy files to the selected folder and then move them to their original location.

Step 6. Save Restored Files 

Saving Files to a New Location

To save restored files or folders on the local machine or in a network shared folder:

  1. Right-click the necessary file or folder in the file system tree or in the details pane on the right and select Copy To.
  2. Choose to preserve their original NTFS permissions or not:
  1. If prompted, in the Credentials window specify settings of the user account to access the destination location.

Step 6. Save Restored Files 

Launching Veeam Explorers

If you are restoring VM guest OS files of the virtualized Microsoft Active Directory Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server or Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle, you can launch a Veeam Explorer for the necessary application directly from the Veeam Backup browser.

Step 6. Save Restored Files 

Working with Windows Explorer

You can use Microsoft Windows Explorer to work with restored files and folders.

  1. Click Open in Explorer on the ribbon in the Veeam Backup browser or right-click the necessary folder and select Explorer.
  2. Veeam Backup & Replication will launch Microsoft Windows Explorer. Browse to the necessary VM guest OS files.

You can also start Microsoft Windows Explorer from the Start menu of Microsoft Windows and browse to the necessary VM guest OS files. VM disks are mounted under the C:\VeeamFLR\<vmname>\<volume n> folder of the machine where the Veeam Backup & Replication console is installed.

It is recommended that you use the Veeam Backup browser instead of Microsoft Windows Explorer for file-level restore. Use of the Veeam Backup browser has the following advantages:

  1. You can browse the VM guest OS file system ignoring the file system ACL settings.
  2. You can preserve permissions and ownership during file-level restore.

If you open the VM file system in the Microsoft Windows Explorer, these capabilities will not be available. For more information, see Microsoft Docs.

Closing Veeam Backup Browser

You can browse to VM guest OS files only while the Veeam Backup browser is open. After the Veeam Backup browser is closed, Veeam Backup & Replication unmounts VM disks from the machine where the Veeam Backup & Replication console is installed and mount server (if you have restored VM guest OS files to the original location).

It is recommended that you close the Veeam Backup browser after you have finished restoring VM guest OS files. When the Veeam Backup browser is open, the backup file whose VM guest OS file system is displayed in the browser is locked on the backup repository. As a result, some scheduled operations that use this backup file may fail.

Veeam Backup & Replication checks if there is any activity in the Veeam Backup browser with an interval of 5 minutes. If the user or Veeam Backup & Replication components and services do not perform any actions for 30 minutes, Veeam Backup & Replication displays a warning that the Veeam Backup browser is to be closed in 5 minutes.

After the warning is displayed, you can perform one of the following actions: