Shadow Copies – Retrieving Deleted Items from Network Drives

Before you Begin

This is a quick and easy way to restore or retrieve your files that are located on your Home Drive (as well as network drives I, O, and N) that you may have accidentily deleted. This is done differently in XP than in Windows 7/Vista.

Shadow copies are created at 7am and 7pm daily for these drives.  The shadow copies are what you will be viewing and retrieving your files from in the steps below.

If you are at home you will need to connect to the VPN  to do this.

Restoring and Retrieving your Files (Windows 7 and Vista)

1. Navigate to the drive where your file was deleted from.
2. Right-click either on the drive or on a folder in your drive.
3. Click on Restore Previous Versions
4. A new window will pop up searching for previous versions, when it finishes searching it will show you all the latest versions based on when they were shadow copied, not when you last changed them.
5. Double-click on which ever previous version you need and it will open up a new windows explorer window with all the documents that were backed up at that time.
6. Navigate to the file that you would like to get back.
7. Right click the file and click copy.
8. Navigate to where you would like the file to be at. Right-click in this location and paste the file to this location.

Your document should now be restored to the location of your choice.

Retrieving and Restoring your files on Windows XP

1. Right-Click on your Homedrive and go to Properties
2. Click on the “Previous Versions” tab
3. Double-click on which ever previous version you need and it will open up a new windows explorer window with all the documents that were backed up at that time.
4. Navigate to the file that you would like to get back.
5. Right click the file and click copy.
6. Navigate to where you would like the file to be at. Right-click in this location and paste the file to this location.

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