Volume level restore fails, how to augment old backup with recent file level restore

[Larserus]

Lost a disk. Am backing up with Agent for Windows, in a regular Windows, not a VM. Tried restoring from backup, but the latest ones fail while doing a volume level restore with a zlib(3) error. So I assume a block is corrupt.

Now I have found one that will work, but it is backup from half a year ago. The incrementals after it will open in FLR, but in Windows lots of files are secured so that you need System or TrustedInstaller level access to replace the files. And running FLR as Administrator from the restored Windows session still causes errors. And then the cases remains what to restore and what not. On a family computer with several accounts and lots and lots of files.

Has anyone come across this, and found a way or guide how to proceed, to restore as much as possible from the incrementals from which a Full Volume level restore is not possible? Or knows of a tool which will add the incrementals to the current (restored and upgraded) Agent for Windows, scan the failing incrementals and repair them? Or produce a report which files are in the corrupted block? There are options for automatic repair and healing in the backup job, but I am very fearful of further breakage if I now start a backup, is there any way to import the later incrementals, and run the repair and healing process?

Thanks!

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community Larserus,

Start file level recovery from the desired restore point, then open C:\VeeamFLR folder via regular windows explorer and copy all needed content to some folder on your local disk. You can repeat this process for every restore point till the desired content is restored but for static files (i.e. photos and documents I'd recommend to rely on the latest possible restore point). Cheers!

[Larserus]

This is what I am already doing. My point is that although this works for ordinary documents, it does not for more system like content. In Windows 10 a lot of stuff is secured with System or TrustedInstaller rights, and doing an FLR restore, even as Admin, will not allow you to replace those files.

What I would really like is a tool or option that can export a new Full backup file out of a point in a backup chain (full and incrementals) even if some of the blocks are corrupt. And produce a report of what could not be exported, so the backup operator can then decide if this new backup can be used to restore. That would be VERY nice!
Something like this is in Backup & Replication, but I cannot find the error skip in the documentation, nor the report on missing parts. And trying this on a home system on a1.8 TB with limited resources is a too steep a challenge for me right now. Which prompted me to post in the forum

[Dima P.]

Lars,

Understood, so you would like to have an option to perform a comparison between files in the backup and existing files on disk, right?

[Larserus]

Yes. And a way to kick of the integrity check and healing mentioned in the Advanced section of the backup settings. If possible going back more than one incremental. Since bitrot may have occurred in a long chain of incremental backups, set up by frugal system admins...

By now I have found which file is affected by the rotten block.
I have restored a working volume backup. There are incrementals beyond the current restore point, from which I have used FLR to get most back. I would have REALLY liked to run the integrity check/heal, but now am unable since the newer incrementals do not appear to be 'seen' by the backup script. And anyway manual states (https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=40) that only the last incremental will be checked, which in my case would be quite useless since the rotten block is inside an incremental from more than a 100 days ago...

So for now I am limping along using FLR to get out as much as possible, occasionally backing up to another location, and implementing a much stricter backup script afterward. With integrity checking and healing turned on for all days of course.

[Larserus]

Found an annoying bug, after FLR encounters a bad block, ALL subsequent (not touching the bad block) fail until FLR wizard is closed. Only upon restart of the FLR wizard are further restore actions possible.

[Larserus]

And reading the docs about repair and healing made me sad. Manual states that detection of corruption in somewhere in a backup chain will simply invalidate the chain from the point of corruption forward. A VERY narrow definition of helpful.
I'd like a report on affected files, with the possibility to export a backup excluding the affected files, and that then volume restore is again possible.