Hi all,
A few people have asked us why they can only see the last backup when checking the files on their backup destination after running an imaging job.
The answer is that past versions are stored as shadow copies on the backup device. So you’ll only ever see the latest backup on the disk (under the WindowsImageBackup directory).
To see what shadow copies are on the disk, you can type in the following command:
vssadmin list shadows /For=X: (where X is the drive letter of your backup device)
You’ll get results like these:
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Contents of shadow copy set ID: {d521fbbf-2c63-463d-b67c-da860b876df2}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 2/19/2009 5:01:41 PM
Shadow Copy ID: {d913f1d4-bd20-42e5-af34-d73affd216f3}
Original Volume: (G:)\\?\Volume{5bcc2078-f20b-11dd-b0f1-0022155a15ad}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy15
Originating Machine: Techteam3
Service Machine: Techteam3
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: DataVolumeRollback
Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential
Contents of shadow copy set ID: {e7f9e5b1-dcd2-4bc6-9d6b-135f88ea9151}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 2/19/2009 11:59:05 PM
Shadow Copy ID: {4b1e9883-58e2-4254-858b-dcd8963390e9}
Original Volume: (G:)\\?\Volume{5bcc2078-f20b-11dd-b0f1-0022155a15ad}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy16
Originating Machine: Techteam3
Service Machine: Techteam3
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: DataVolumeRollback
Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential
Contents of shadow copy set ID: {42dcd8dd-5d30-4872-9515-4beb6b0c66b1}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 2/20/2009 5:42:30 PM
Shadow Copy ID: {91099482-bbf3-4fcb-8d32-fca28030beed}
Original Volume: (G:)\\?\Volume{5bcc2078-f20b-11dd-b0f1-0022155a15ad}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy17
Originating Machine: Techteam3
Service Machine: Techteam3
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: DataVolumeRollback
Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential
Contents of shadow copy set ID: {529739fb-490f-40b5-8259-a18c075e74e3}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 2/20/2009 11:58:06 PM
Shadow Copy ID: {bbcecdae-72d8-4842-996f-cb52c9d62f6f}
Original Volume: (G:)\\?\Volume{5bcc2078-f20b-11dd-b0f1-0022155a15ad}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy18
Originating Machine: Techteam3
Service Machine: Techteam3
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: DataVolumeRollback
Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential
Note that in the BackupAssist Report, at the end (in the Media Usage section) you can see what past versions are available on the disk. We provide that list so you can see your possible restore points. If you want to find the list of restore points manually, you can also use the command wbadmin get versions to list the versions available.
Hope that answers a few questions out there!
Regards,
Linus
