Restoring a Server 2008 R2 Image Backup to a VM

Question

I have a Windows Server 2008 R2 system backup. I selected Bare Metal, System State, and 1 volume (c drive, the only volume on the system except the external drive I saved the backup to).

Who do I restore this to a Hypervisor VM instance?

Thanks -Jonathan

Answer 1

Hi this should be fairly simple.

Before I answer though if all you want to do is access the files all you need to do is mount the VHD. If you want it actually running, then see below.

1st make a copy of the backup, as this process may not work and could corrupt it. I suggest just copy back to the main disk (if it will fit).

Then, create a new VM (it can be small, 1-2GB ram etc) and when it asks for the hard disk, simply specify the (copied) VHD backup file.

Start up the VM, it will probably complain about drivers and such but you should still be good to go. This process should actually work for any virtualisation solution (you can even convert VHD to other format), and similarly any full backup system ie Acronis (.tib can be converted).

Let me know how it goes as I have tried this just now on my system and it works fine.