Restoring Data from Backups

You have chosen a backup strategy, you have been regularly backing up your data, and you now have the need to retrieve some or all of that data. You have one or more backup Zip files to restore this data on your computer. What do you do next?

The simplest answer is to open the appropriate Zip file(s) and click Unzip. This will open the Unzip dialog which will allow you to extract the contents of the Zip file into a location that you specify. Before clicking Unzip in the Actions pane, you may want to check your Unzip Options and make any changes that may be necessary.

If you have multiple backup Zip files created using different job types, the restore process may be a little more complex. To help with this, please review the scenarios below.

Scenarios to illustrate the data restore process

In the scenarios below, you will need to unzip your backup Zip files in the order listed in the Steps to restore column. This will insure that you have the latest data once you have finished.

In general, you will save time restoring backups if you use Differential Data Backups in your backup plan. However, it is also true that this type of plan will use more space compared to using Incremental Data Backups. This is due to the fact that the Zip files from each differential backup will contain all of the files that have changed or are new since the previous full backup. It can also take longer to create the differential Zip files since they generally include more files. On the other hand, incremental Zip files only include files that have changed since the most recent incremental or full data backup, they are usually smaller, and will usually take less time to create.

If you have any questions about this information, please submit a Technical Support ticket.

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