Selectively Restore Files and Folders

Overview

This process is almost identical to Restore Files and Folders with the addition of being able to find files prior to restoring.  As you can imagine, this will prove invaluable if you have a lot of backup files and need to locate a few files, it will also show you files with the same name in multiple backup files and allow you to select which file is to be restored from the backup set.  Files with the same name are organised by modified date with the most recent first.

This procedure describes how to restore files to their original folder or restore files inside their original folder structure to another location.  If you want to restore individual files or discard the folder structure then you should browse the image with Windows Explorer and copy and paste the files and folders, see Browse files in backups.

To selectively restore a file and folder backup

1. In the Macrium Reflect main window, select the Restore tab at the top left.

2. Select the File and Folder Restore tab.
   
   The restore tab displays a list of all the backup files discovered in the 'Folders To Search'. You can sort the images by date, location, or filename by clicking the relevant link. You can filter the list by backup disk, and add additional folders to the search. To browse for a backup file that is not listed, click Browse for a backup file at the top.

3. Enter a series of filenames to search for in the edit box.
   
   
   
   Each filename should be separated by a semi-colon character " ; ".  Filenames can consist of wildcards where the asterisk character " * " will match a range and the question mark character " ? " will match a single character.

4. Select the date range to match files against.  As the prompt suggests, this will only check the modified date of the files in the backup.

5. Select whether to search all files currently loaded in the list of backups or the selected backup file.

6. Click Search.
   
   The search results will be displayed.
   
   

7. Select the files to be restored.  If the same named file was found in different backup files then you can only select that file once, i.e.: you cannot select more than once instance of the same named file.

8. Click Next.
   
   The restore to wizard appears.
   
   

9. Select Original location or select New location and browse to the new location.

10. In the File replace option list, select Replace all files or Replace only files that are different.

11. If you want the restored files to have their original dates then select Restore folder create and modified dates. Otherwise, the restored files are given the current date and time as they are restored.

12. To maintain the original permission rights for the restore files then select Restore NTFS permissions.

13. Click Next.
    
    A restore summary screen appears.
    
    

14. Click Finish to start the file and folder restore process.