Elastic Compute Service:Best practices for restoring data on Windows instances

Scenarios

• You accidentally deleted specific files from an ECS instance. As a result, the instance failed to start.

• You did not create snapshots before the delete operation or do not want to use snapshots to restore data.

• You want to restore data by using another Windows instance.

Operation flowchart

The following flowchart shows the procedure of data restoration for the preceding scenario.

Procedure

1. Create snapshots for the current instance.

   Before you restore data, we recommend that you create a snapshot for the system disk or data disk whose data you want to restore. This way, you can use the snapshot to back up existing data and prevent file corruption during subsequent restoration operations. For information about how to create a snapshot, see Create a snapshot.

2. Detach the system disk or data disk whose data you want to restore from the instance and attach the disk to another instance.

   Warning

   Before you detach the system disk, you must stop the associated instance. If you perform the stop operation in the ECS console, select Force Stop. Otherwise, the instance fails to be stopped.

   

   You can detach the system disk or data disk from the source instance and attach the disk to another normal Windows instance to restore data. For information about how to detach and attach a data disk, see Detach or attach a system disk.

   Warning

   When you attach the original system disk to another instance as a data disk in the ECS console, the system disk file system may be corrupted. As a result, the ECS console prompts you to initialize the disk. To prevent data corruption, we recommend that you do not click Initialize Now in the ECS console to re-initialize the disk. Close the dialog box and proceed to the next step.

   

3. Restore the accidentally deleted data.

   1. Connect to the Windows instance to which you attach the disk whose data you want to restore. For more information, see Connect to a Windows instance by using a username and password.

   2. Download DiskGenius.

      Download the DiskGenius package from the DiskGenius website.

   3. Decompress the DiskGenius package and double-click the DiskGenius.exe file to run DiskGenius.

   4. Right-click the partition for which you want to restore files and select Recover Lost Files from the short-cut menu.

      In the dialog box that appears, retain the default settings and click Start to scan files.

      

   5. In the message that appears, click OK.

      

   6. On the Files tab, select the file that you want to restore, right-click the file, and then select an appropriate operation from the short-cut menu to restore the file to a specific path.

      

      Important

      DiskGenius is third-party software for disk management. DiskGenius, but not Alibaba Cloud, may charge fees for file restoration. For information about fees for DiskGenius usage, go to the DiskGenius website.

Common misunderstandings

The underlying storage of Alibaba Cloud is based on the triplicate storage technology. As such, specific users consider that no risk of data loss exists in the operating system. This is a misunderstanding. The triplicate storage technology protects data on data disks at the physical layer. However, logical issues, such as viruses, accidental deletions, or file system corruption, can cause data loss. To mitigate the risks, you must use related technologies, such as snapshots and geo-redundancy, to improve data security. For more information, see Triplicate storage.

Best practices

Data disk partition restoration and data restoration can be used to address data loss. However, the solutions may be unable to restore data as expected. We recommend that you follow the best practices to create automatic or manual snapshots for data and use different backup methods to maximize your data security.

• Apply automatic snapshot policies

  You can apply automatic snapshot policies to system disks or data disks to create automatic snapshots for the disks.

  Important

  When a system disk is replaced, an instance expires, or a disk is manually released, the associated automatic snapshots may be released. If you want automatic snapshots of a disk to be released along with the disk, you can select Delete Automatic Snapshots While Releasing Disk in the Modify Attributes dialog box in the ECS console. If you want to retain the automatic snapshots when the disk is released, clear this option. For more information, see Snapshot FAQ and Create an automatic snapshot policy.

• Create manual snapshots

  Before you perform the following important or high-risk operations, you must manually create snapshots for disks:

  • Update the kernel.

  • Upgrade or change applications.

  • Restore data on disks.

  Before you restore a disk, you must create a snapshot for the disk. Then, perform the corresponding operations after the snapshot is complete.

• Object Storage Service (OSS) backup, offline backup, and geo-redundancy

  You can back up important data by using OSS backup, offline backup, or geo-redundancy based on your business requirements.