Skip to content

Recovering Data from RDS using Windows

This guide explains how you can use the snapshot/previous version feature to recover files from the Research Data Store on Windows (Linux guide available here), without needing IT Services to recover data from backup tapes. Snapshots of files are usually available for 4 days, e.g. if you made changes on a Friday you could still recover the original file on the Monday after. The snapshot directories (see below) will be named by the date they were created.

System Requirements

  • Windows 10, University-managed device.

  • University VPN service (if working off-campus).

Process

In the example below we are trying to restore a subfolder from the Research Data Store \\its-rds.bham.ac.uk\2017\ghumraak-01:

  1. Open up File Explorer.

  2. Navigate to the folder which contains the file or subfolder you would like to restore.

    restore-01

  3. Right click on the subfolder you wish to restore (Folder A in this example) and select ‘Restore previous versions’ from the context menu:

    restore-02

  4. Click on the ‘Previous Versions’ tab in the window that pops up:

    restore-03

  5. In the ‘Folder versions’ list, select the version you would like to restore. Click the ‘Open’ button to check out the contents to make sure it is the correct version.

    restore-04

    Warning

    The file or folder will replace the current version on your computer, and the replacement cannot be undone. If you need to keep a copy of the original folder then you must rename the original folder before continuing to restore the contents.

    restore-05

  6. You can either:

    1. click on ‘Restore’ to restore the whole subfolder; or…
    2. click on ‘Open’ and choose the files you want to restore by selecting the file(s), clicking on your right hand mouse button and selecting ‘Copy’, navigate to the folder you want to copy the files to and then clicking on your right hand mouse button and selecting ‘Paste’.

Further Assistance

If you need further help, please raise an Other BEAR Request ticket on the Service Desk.

If you need to report a fault with the service, please raise a Report a Fault with BEAR ticket on the Service Desk.