What are Shadow Copies?
Shadow copies is a tool built into Windows that enables a user to restore their files to a previous version. Basically the server takes "snapshots" of the network drives several times a day, and stores information about changes made to the files. A user may restore a file or folder that has been modified back to how it was at the time of one of the snapshots.
This can be very useful if you accidentally delete a file or save changes that you did not mean to. For example, if you accidentally delete the entire contents of the report you were working on, and saved it, you could use shadow copies to restore the file to how it was that morning. You can also use it if you accidentally deleted important files to restore those files.
How do I use Shadow Copies?
- Right click on the folder that contained the file and select “Restore Previous Versions.”
- Find the date and time that you want to restore from and Double-Click it. (NEVER CLICK THE RESTORE BUTTON)
- This new folder that opened up is a copy from the past. Find the file(s) that you want to recover and right-click and copy them, then go to the live folder that you want to copy them to and right-click and paste those files to the destination
- If the file did NOT exist in the live folder then it will paste in with no problem, however, if you are restoring a file you will get a prompt to replace the current file in the live folder. Click "Replace the file in the destination". This will remove whatever is in the live folder and replace it will what you are copying out of the folder from the past. (Warning: you will lose any changes made in the file between the date in the past and the present. This replaces data, but does not merge data)
- Make sure to close the window from that past so that it doesn't get confused with anything else.
