HD Doctor Blog

How to restore individual files and folders from a backup you made with DiscWizard without restoring the whole system?

The current version of DiscWizard is supported in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. Previous version of Microsoft Windows, such as Microsft Windows 98SE and Microsft Windows Me are not supported.

From DiscWizard, you can browse through your backup image file to extract individual files and folders.  Before continuing, make sure the backup image is accessible.  For example, if you backed up to an external hard drive, make sure the drive is connected to your computer and recognized in My Computer.  If you backed up to removable media such as CDs or DVDs, insert the final CD or DVD that was backed up to.

1. Open DiscWizard.
2. In the "Pick a Task" menu, click “Image Restore”, or click on “Operations” in the menu bar and select “Image Restore”.

   Even though the "Image Restore" option states, "Recover the entire hard disc contents", you will also be able to use this option to restore individual files and folders.

3. In the "Welcome to the Image Data Restore Wizard!" window, click “Next”.

   

4. In the "Archive Selection" window, browse to your image backup file in the list of drives and network connections on the left.

   

   In the example above, the file "MyImage.tib" contains a backup of the drive C: partition.

   Once you have selected the image backup file, click on “Next”.

5. In the "Image Restoration Type Selection" window, click on the “Restore specified files or folders” radio button and click on “Next”.

   

6. In the "Image Restore Destination Selection" window, you will select whether you want to restore your files and folders to their original location, or to a new folder.

   

   It is recommended that you restore your files to a new location, so that you do not accidentally overwrite any local files that you may want to preserve. To restore files to their original location, click on the “Original place” radio button.  To restore them to a different or new folder, click on the “Restore to a new place” radio button.  Click on “Next”.

   If you chose to restore files to their “Original place”, please skip the next step and proceed to Step 8.

7. If you selected the option to “Restore to a new place” in the previous step, the "Image Restore Destination Selection" window will open. From here, you can browse to the local folder you want to restore your files to, or you can click on “Create new folder” to create a new folder to restore your files to.

   

   Once you have selected or created a folder to restore to, click on “Next”.

8. In the "Contents Selection" window, you will be able to select the files and folders that you want restored.

   

   When this page is first opened, the entire partition is selected by default, as shown in the example above. It is recommended that you click on the check box next to the backup image file name in order to deselect everything. This will make it much easier to select the individual files and folders you want to restore.

   You can use the list of backed up partitions on the left to select the files and folders to restore. To expand a backed up partition or folder to see its contents, click on the plus sign (+) next to it. To select a file or folder to restore, click on the check box next to its name.

   

   Note that in the example above, when a folder is checked, all the files and subfolders contained within that folder are selected as well.

   Once you have selected the files or folders to restore, click on “Next”.

9. In the "Choose Image Restore Options" screen, you may select to “Use default options” when restoring files, which will use DiscWizard’s default settings, or “Set the options manually”, to adjust settings as to how the file restore will be run.

   

   The default options when DiscWizard is first installed are normal restoration priority, preserve file security settings, and no additional settings.

   Once you have made your selection, click on “Next”. If you chose “Use default options”, please skip the next step and proceed to step 11.

10. If you selected “Set the options manually” in the previous step, you will now see the "Image Restore operations options" screen.

    

    From here, you can adjust the following settings:

    • Image Restoration Priority – Adjust this setting to change how fast the restore will run, and how much it will interfere with other applications you have open.
    • File level security settings – With this option enabled, you will restore the same security settings (e.g. ownership, rights) of files and folders as when they were backed up
    • Additional settings – You can use this option to validate that the backup image was created without errors before files are restored to your computer

    Once you have selected the restore options, click on “Next”.

11. In the "Image Restoration Mode", you can select whether or not files that exist on the drive you are restoring to will be overwritten with restored files that have the same name.

    

    The options available are

    • Overwrite existing file – If a file with the same name as the restored file exists in the location you are restoring to, it will be overwritten. 
    • Overwrite existing file if it is older – If a file with the same name as the restored file exists in the location you are restoring to, and it is older than the restored file, it will be overwritten. 
    • Do not overwrite existing file – If a file with the same name as the restored file exists in the location are restoring to, it will not be overwritten.

    These options usually only come into play if you chose to restore files to their original location.  If you are restoring to a different location, you will not likely run into an issue of overwriting files, but it is still possible.  The safest, non-data destructive option to choose is Do not overwrite existing file.

    Once you have made your selection, click on “Next”.

12. The next window shows the settings you have selected for restoring your files and folders.

    

    Once you have verified your selections are correct, click on “Proceed”.

13. The "Operation Progress" window will open, displaying the restore process as it progresses.

    

    After a minute, the estimated time remaining will be calculated and displayed above the "Total progress" bar.

14. Once the files have been restored, an "Information" window will open stating that the operation has completed succesfully.

    

    Click on “OK”. You may now close out of DiscWizard and use My Computer to browse to the location of your restored files.

For further information on DiscWizard’s features, please consult the Discwizard User’s Guide