About true image restore

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 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 restoring from backup sets that were created by jobs in a true image restore policy, 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:

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.
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, 2006 and December 4, 2006:

Note:

The Collect additional information for synthetic backup and for true image restore option was selected for the templates in the policy that created the backup jobs.

Table: Example table of files backed up because true image restore is enabled

Day	Type of Backup	Files Backed Up in C:\user\doc	Files Backed Up in C:\user\doc	Files Backed Up in C:\user\doc	Files Backed Up in C:\user\doc	Files Backed Up in C:\user\doc	Files Backed Up in C:\user\doc
December 1, 2006	Full	file1	file2	dirA\fileA	dirB\fileB	file3
December 2, 2006	Incremental	file1	file2	dirA\fileA	----------------	----------------
December 3, 2006	Incremental	file1	file2	dirA\fileA	----------------	----------------
December 4, 2006	Incremental	file1	file2	-----------------	-----------------	-----------------	file4

Note:

Dashes (-----------------) indicate that the file was deleted prior to this backup.

Assume that you are going to restore the December 4, 2006 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, 2006 (last full backup) through December 4, 2006.

For example, the following files and directories are included:

file1
file2
dirA\fileA
dirB\fileB
file3
file4

If you perform a true image restore of the December 4, 2006 backup, the restored directory has only the files and directories that existed at the time of the incremental backup on December 4, 2006.

The following list includes the files and directories that existed.

file1
file2
file4

Backup Exec does not restore any of the files that were deleted prior to the December 4, 2006 incremental backup.

The restored directory does not include the dirA subdirectories, even though they were backed up on December 4, 2006. 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 present when the backup was completed. Assume you created a file named file5 after the incremental backup occurred on December 4, 2006, but before doing the restore.

In this case, the directory contains the following files after the restore:

file1
file2
file4
file5