Browse files in backups

Overview

You can browse or explore an image or backup by mounting the file in Windows Explorer. The backed-up data is mapped to a temporary drive letter that you can access just like any other drive.

In Windows Explorer, the backup image is read-only so you cannot change its contents. You can either open the files directly (but you will not be able to save them) or you can copy and paste them to the desired location using Windows Explorer.

Note:  When you finish a session, you should detach the image to release the drive letter, otherwise the image or backup will remain mounted.

The folder chosen must contain ALL of the files required to load an image. This means that an incremental backup requires the full backup set to be present, and a differential backup required the most recent differential and the first full backup to be present. If the image is split across multiple DVDs then it isn't possible to mount the image.

To mount an image or backup

  1. In the Macrium Reflect main window, select the Restore tab at the top left.

  2. Select the Image Restore tab or File and Folder Restore tab.

    The restore tab displays a list of all the backup files discovered in the 'Folders To Search'. You can sort the images by date, location, or filename by clicking the relevant link. You can filter the list by backup disk, and add additional folders to the search. To browse for an image file that is not listed, click Browse for an image file at the top.

  3. Click an image to select it.

    Action links appear inside the image area.

  4. Click Browse Image.

    The backup selection dialog appears:

  5. Select the backup or image that you want to browse.

  6. From the drive letter drop-down, select a drive letter.

  7. To mount the image with full NTFS access rights to all folders in the image, select Enable access to restricted folders.

    The Enable access to restricted folders option removes NTFS security restrictions in images that were created on another computer. Without this option, some folders such as personal or user folders, are inaccessible due to NTFS security restrictions.

  8. Click OK.

Windows Explorer starts with the mounted image selected. You can browse and copy files from the image.

To detach a backup image and free the drive letter

Right-click the drive letter in Windows Explorer and select Unmount Macrium Image from the shortcut menu.

See also

Browse Image