Recover Files with Shadow Copies on Any Version of Windows Vista
This article was written by our very own whs, one of the most helpful forum members.
The “Previous Versions” feature in Windows Vista is a major step forward for users, since it provides some built-in protection against losing important files. The problem is that the home versions of Vista don’t give you an interface to access them, even though it’s enabled by default!
Enter ShadowExplorer, a utility that runs on all versions of Vista and will let you access your “Shadow Copies”, which are the internal backup copies of files that Vista stores every so often.
Recovering Files with Shadow Explorer
First launch ShadowExplorer as administrator by right-clicking on the entry in the start menu and choosing Run as Administrator. (Update:It should launch as administrator by default otherwise, but if it doesn’t then use the right-click method)
The initial screen will show you a drop-down menu with the shadow copies of all partitions and disks you have.
Click on the last shadow (see the date) from THE DAY BEFORE the unfortunate event happened – make sure you get the right partition (most likely C: for your own files)
Since most of your files are in your User folder, double click C:\ then in the left pane choose “Users”.
Then in the right pane double click the folder with YOUR NAME ( probably the last folder before desktop.ini). There you will find all your folders (and some more)
Now you can right-click on the folder or file you want to recover and EXPORT it to wherever you like on your system.
After clicking on Export, you’ll be prompted for the directory you’d like to save the recovered files into.
Note that the Shadow Copies / Previous Versions feature is not a substitute for a proper backup solution, but can greatly help in a pinch.
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Nice Article!
I would like to thank the Geek for putting some “meat” around my skimpy input. I would also like to thank jd2066. He found the ShadowExplorer program on the web. He is a much better Googler than I.
What if I don’t have Shadow Explorer on my Start menu.
I use the classic start menu.
What’s the command line for it?
ok, stupid question.
sorry.
Thanks for this… Time and time again I manage to mess up something that requires me restoring it from memory… MY OWN MEMORY. This is a good tool to try to fix some of those mistakes I’ve made at 3 am in the morning… Thanks!
Works nice, thanks alot. It will come in handy one day Im sure.
There is no entry called “Shadow Explorer” or anything similar in my Start Menu. So Bob’s question wasn’t stupid. How can I access Shadow Explorer?
@Grant
Did you already install the application? Once you install it, it should show up in the start menu.
Nice! Any idea how much space shadow copies take up on your hard drive though?
Also, I submitted this to digg since it’s so awesome. Please digg it up if you have an account, and don’t let the stupid lifehacker version of the story hit the frontpage like they always do with How-To-Geek stories.
http://digg.com/microsoft/Reco.....n_of_Vista
@Ibrahim, Each shadow is +/- 1GB and about 15% of your disk spaces are reserved for shadowcopies. If you want to look at them, open Command Prompt (in accsessories) as Administrator and type VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWS and press ENTER. And if you want to know the size (used, allocated) of your shadowstorage type VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWSTORAGE and press ENTER. Shadowstorage is allocated on every disk (logical or physical, internal or external).
@Ibrahim
Thanks for the support, I definitely appreciate the sentiment.
In fact, this site has grown dramatically because of great readers like you, not because of Digg. It’s been 9 months since we got on the front page there, and I’m just not worried about it at all… I’d rather build our own community. =)
How can I turn shadow on for all my partitions? Shadowexplorer only shows my C drive.
Thanks
Alex
I found the answer: Systemrestore needs to be turned on for all the partitions
This was extremely helpful however what if the date you need doesn’t show up in the drop down menu. I get the dates from before the event took place. I guess I have to take it to an IT person huh?
Oh sorry I meant I get the dates after the event, not before it.
I had by mistake restored the factory setting of my windoes vista. I did not take a backup. How do I restore my previous files
Ikm sur that is going to do well for me,,,but for now, I’m stock at
((First launch ShadowExplorer as administrator by right-clicking on the entry in the start menu and choosing Run as Administrator. (Update:It should launch as administrator by default otherwise, but if it doesn’t then use the right-click method),))
ShadowExplorer is not in in the start menu..were do I go from now.
Great article! thanks, i have a small problem though, i only have dates from a few mins ago in the drop down menue, does this mean that i wasnt getting backups before i got Shadow Explorer?
Someone Please Help.
it isnt on my copy of vista home premium sadly – very important document lost
Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!! I had tried everything to recpver a video folder I lost and was finally able to retrive it with this Shadow Explorer and the awesome easy to follow guide. These were videos of one my kids first steps etc….
What an awesome tool Im going to back up the videos now though!!
Thankyou for telling us about Shadow Explorer. I lost my temper when my daughter nearly destroyed my PC so I deleted her user account and out of spite, deleted all her files with it. Hundreds of poems she wrote herself, emails form her dad, pictures. I feel bad about it and thanks to Shadow Explorer, I’ve got it all back. God Bless you.
OMG!!! My FILES!! My sweet sweet precious files! Thank you sooo very much. I lost everything (thank you spybot).
I promise and swear to back up everything from now on forever and ever.
Thank you…If I could hug you I would.
Great article. However, I have the same question as EM. I get the dates after the event. How do I look for previous dates? I lost my file on September 25th. But the drop-down menu only shows September 26??? Please help. It’s urgent.
Hey!
When I run the program as administrator, UAC pops up, and i hit allow.
Then I nothing shows up in my program…i switch between drives in the drop down box, but there’s nothing?
I really need to retrieve some music that I lost…please help?
And yes! this site is amazing and has helped me with everything that I have ever been through (computer wise:D ).
thanks in advance!
Dear God – THANK YOU – this was JUST what I needed.
Hi,
I think I had the same problem as “Eek”, using ShadowExplorer on my copy of Vista Home Premium, and I tracked it down a little. I hope this helps in some way.
I’m using TrueCrypt for encrypting my system partition and an additional data partition on my harddrive. Both partitions are mounted as internal drives, read/write mode.
When the data partition is mounted in TrueCrypt, ShadowExplorer shows *nothing*. No files, no dates, nothing in the drop down box, everything is just empty white space.
As soon as I unmount that partition and restart ShadowExplorer, I can acces the system partition just fine. Not the other partition, though.
This is very unfortunate, since I intended to restore a file on said data partition. Guess ShadowExplorer won’t work for me, at least at the moment.
Sincerely,
kris
THANK YOU! This information was sooooooooooooooo helpful. Really!
Amanda, that piece of information will probably help someone trace the bug in ShadowExlorer, so it can finally be corrected. It’s a shame that you don’t get that. Yes, my observation won’t help everyone – more than your misplaced sarcasm will, though.
My thingy is also showing dates from after i lost those files grrrr failure yet again
Shadow Explorer just completely saved my arse. I had a 50 page document which completely disappeared after I shut my pc down this morning. At 11.53 am I printed off the document and shut down the computer. Logged back in about an hour ago and no document. It wasn’t where it should be, or in the recycle bin and it hadn’t been moved or renamed and no searches could find it anywhere. if someone came to me wioth this scenario I’d tell them it was impossible. It likely has something to do with a print problem as I had a corrupt print service on another printer when I logged back in, but how this might have destroyed the document i have no idea. Anyway, Shadow explorer got me a copy from about 7pm yesterday and only a few small edits lost.
Hah this is a life saver. For whatever reason, my computer put two different entries for a folder.
As I work a lot with video, I had approx 100gig’s worth in this particular folder, so having two copies? I was thinking “I am going to save myself a lot of space here”. Windows: “This is too big for the recycle bin, permanently delete?” , clicked ok, afterall, it was just a copy of my folder right?
Wrong.
For whatever reason, the two folders were different, but at the same time, the same. As I deleted my work, it completely went, and with a project this week end, I was rather “Oh shi-”
So thanks for this guide and programme to bail me out!
PLEASE HELP! I need to retrieve internet history after it was deleted. I do have the dates I need and I can see COMPONENT folder but it seems to be epmty. When I hit export the ShadowExplorer does nothing and there are no files in the folder I am trying to save it in..PLease help!
Thanks – this has been a life-saver. I combed various programs for hours to get my deleted Documents folder back. Shadow Copy saved my life. Great Work !!
This program is a lifesaver. We lost 43.1GB of data in 670 files when they were somehow accidentaly deleted. They were not in the Recycle Bin and we don’t really know how it happened – but ShadowExplorer got almost all of them back – the only files that could not be recovered had really deeply nested folders. Be warned, it takes HOURS to recover this much data – just be patient and trust ShadowExplorer to get on with it.
Fantastic program and great How-to. Paid £45 to a local PC maintenance tech to try ( and fail ) to recover these files. I sorted it for free with this programme and recovered data that had taken volunteers days to scan in. Thinks its worth a donation…
THANK-YOU!!!!!!!! I thought all hope was lost – I would like to kiss the feet of the people who made this program!!!!!!
ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!!!!!!…..Thank you SOOOOOO much…because of your write up on shadow explorer I was able to recover some VERY important documents that had been deleted!!!! You are my heroes!!!
Hello,
This is a great program! However, I have a question. I deleted some files on accident yesterday (May 30th), completely even out of my recycle bin. I downloaded Shadow Explorer today, and was not able to see the files I accidentally deleted. I also deleted some files today, after I downloaded Shadow Explorer, to see if they would show up, and they did not. I did, however, saw files deleted from the day before yesterday, but not the ones from yesterday. Does it take a couple days for deleted files to show up??
Thanks!
Damn! A life-saver! Thanks a bunch, man! I was going to commit a suicide heh