Prerequisites

1. Location of the ShadowProtect backup chain, accessible by either local volume OR UNC network share, if the backups are stored on a network share, ensure you have the following:
   1. Network share path
   2. Network share domain\username
   3. Network share password
2. The backup encryption password – this is extremely important since without the backup encryption password the data cannot be decrypted
3. A destination machine to restore the backups – either physical or virtual
4. Information about the backed up volumes. We strongly recommend matching the original physical disk, partition and volume structures exactly. There will be less things to go wrong if these all match what was running on the source machine.
   1. Physical disk size(s)
   2. Physical disk type(s): GPT / MBR
   3. Partition sizes
   4. Volume sizes (eg: C:\, D:\)
5. ShadowProtect recovery ISO (supplied by CyberSecure)

Considerations

1. Which backup snapshot to restore?
2. If possible the destination physical disk and logical partition structure should match the backup source, this will make the restore process simpler and therefore less error-prone.
3. Will the destination be a physical or virtual machine? Physical machines are more likely to have issues booting due to device drivers. Make sure you know your RAID/HBA controller chipset and have a copy of the controller device drivers ready for loading into the recovery environment.
4. If destination is Hyper-V virtual machine, then:
   1. MBR disks to Gen 1 Hyper-V and;
   2. GPT to Gen 2 Hyper-V
5. If the volume(s) you are restoring to are smaller than the original follow this guide, however we do not recommend trying to restore to smaller volumes as it adds complexity to the process.

Bare Metal Restore

1. Boot off recovery environment media
2. Start network support
   
3. Set correct time zone
4. If prompted Initialize the disk (choose MBR or GPT according to your configuration)
   
5. Accept generated disk signature and click “OK”
6. If you are restoring backup images from a network share (ie. NAS) now map the network drive in the ShadowProtect recovery environment
7. If backups are stored on a network location you may need to manually set a static IP address
8. Click “Restore Wizard” > “Next”
   
9. Select a normal restore (the default)
   
10. Browse to and select the image file you wish to restore from
    
11. Enter your encryption password and click “OK”
    
12. Information on the current image will be displayed. Proceed by clicking “Next”
    
13. Change which point in time to restore from or click “Next” to continue
    
14. First restore the boot volume. Right click “Unallocated space” and select “Create exact primary partition at the beginning of free space”
    
15. Volume will be created. Tick the new volume and click “Next”
    
16. Tick “Finalize the volume at the end of this restore” and click “Next”
    
17. Select options as below
    
    1. Set partition active: TICK
    2. Restore MBR: TICK
       1. RESTORE MBR from the image file: SELECTED
       2. Restore disk signature: TICK
    3. Restore Disk Hidden Track: TICK
18. Click “Finish” to begin restore
    
19. Additional partitions can be restored if necessary, these can be added immediately and will be queued up automatically
20. If necessary you can create partitions manually. Under the “Disk Map” tab create partitions to match the source (each partition must be greater than or equal to original partition in size)
21. If you have restored to a virtual machine, we strongly advise taking a snapshot/checkpoint once the restoration is completed. This will allow a base from which to revert back to in case of boot issues into the operating system.
22. Once the system has booted correctly, delete the checkpoint to avoid running out of free space on your hypervisors storage.

Booting the operating system

1. If the operating system fails to boot then contact CyberSecure support.