Selectors!

[IAI]

Am I missing something? Or is there no way to restore JUST FILES THAT ARE MISSING? Why must the Replace corresponding option overwrite corresponding files by default without giving the ability to skip newer? I only want to restore files that do NOT exist on the destination, without overwriting files that may have been updated since the backup was made!

[jamesmerrill]

I'll agree with you that there seems to be a substantial missing feature there. Most backup programs have options in restore that let you have the program not overwrite any existing files, overwrite only older existing files, or prompt you for each file. Of course, most backup programs have no ability to actually make the target be the same as it had been when the snapshot was taken!

 

It also seems that when you restore a volume, there should be an option to leave currently-existing files not in the snapshot in place. Or it could present a tree-mode list of the existing files that aren't in the snapshot, and let you choose the ones to be deleted (where choosing a directory would remove all files and directories under it). Most primitively (but it would get the job done), rather than actually deleting files (and removing directories), the program could create a .BAT file that has multiple lines

 

del c:\this\that\other.abc

del c:\this\that\other.def

rd c:\this\that

 

that would do what needs to be done to make the volume match the snapshot -- then you could edit it before running it, or leave all the new files intact by not running it at all.

 

Of course, it could be the case that (if your disk is nearly full or a lot of files on the snapshot had been removed) there might not be enough space to restore everything unless files not in the snapshot are removed.

 

Without any changes to the product, if you have the disk space (anywhere on your network), you can use the "retrieve files and folders" option to bring (presumably a subset of) the snapshot back to another directory; then use a program like XXCopy to copy the files that are only in the restored folder, or that are newer in the restored folder, to your original target.

 

Good luck.