Skip to main content

Restore drives

A drive restore writes the content of a backup to a partition, a drive or a whole disk. The existing data on the target is overwritten.

Restore a disk or partition​

  1. Select Restore backups on the start page.
  2. Select the backup in the list, or choose its file in the file dialog.
  3. Specify what to restore: the whole disk or individual partitions.
  4. Select the target drive. It can be the original disk or a new or empty disk.
  5. Start the restore and follow the steps of the wizard.
Data on the target is overwritten

Restoring a whole disk or the system partition overwrites all data on the target medium. Check that the target contains no data you still need.

Keep the full backup and all change backups that belong to the selected backup available. Backups in the VHD and VHDX formats cannot be restored; they can only be mounted. See Backup options.

Restore the system partition​

The system drive is in use while Windows is running, so it cannot be overwritten in normal operation. Use Fortress Mode under Tools: it restarts the PC in a protected environment with full access to the entire system, including locked drives, and prevents running processes or malware from interfering with the restore.

If Windows no longer starts, start the PC from the startup medium and restore the backup from the recovery environment. Reconnect the backup storage there and keep the password of an encrypted backup available.

See Fortress Mode and startup medium.

After the restore​

  • Check the report of the restore and verify the restored data.
  • After restoring Windows, restart the PC and check that it starts.
  • If the PC has BitLocker-protected drives, have the recovery key ready: in the recovery environment, encrypted volumes can only be used after they have been unlocked.