• Pika@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      Yes, they are essentially file snapshots. Shadow copies in a Microsoft environment at least are basically file history without using file history. So when you modify a file when it’s enabled, it makes a copy of the last version of the file.

      But since it’s not meant to be a actual backup solution, it’s meant to be on a file-by-file basis. I think that means they had to go through and manual restore n a file by file basis

      • AspieEgg@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 hours ago

        If I remember correctly, we were able to restore folders from the shadow copies. I certainly didn’t go file by file. I might have used a tool to do it. But as you pointed out, it’s not a proper backup so we had to do quite a bit of reconciliation to make sure we restored everything and document anything we couldn’t restore.

    • AspieEgg@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Yeah, shadow copies on Windows servers are snapshots of files. They allow users to see previous versions of a file.

      It’s not really intended as a backup solution on its own, but some backup software does use the volume shadow copy service (VSS) to perform backups on Windows servers.

      I was basically restoring files from this prompt in Windows.