I'm dealing with a situation where a new client's RAID has failed, and they have backups of Hyper-V VMs created with Windows Server Backup stored on USB drives. Is there a way to restore these VMs on a Windows 11 client? Can I use the Windows Server Backup tool on Windows 11, or are there any free or low-cost third-party alternatives? My goal is to recover the VHDXs that make up the VMs and check their bootability in Hyper-V, which I have installed on my Windows 11 laptop. Alternatively, do I need to set up a new server from scratch and restore from there?
3 Answers
Restoring production VMs to Windows 11? That’s bold! But honestly, it’s better than being left with nothing. I’ve run Windows Server VMs on Windows 11 with no issues before—just use it for testing whether those backups are working. Not ideal, but it’s worth checking what you’ve got before going the long route.
If I were in your shoes, I’d install a trial of Server 2022 and mount those VHDs to retrieve the data. Worst case, if you’re feeling adventurous, take a copy of the VHD and try booting it in Hyper-V. Just make sure to bill for your time if it works out!
Unfortunately, I can't access the VHDXs yet since they're locked in the Windows Server Backup files. I need another computer running a server OS to get at them.
Restoring backups can be tricky. Just make sure your client knows that restoring from Windows Server Backup might take a lot of time and could be costly without guaranteed success. It’s smart to ask for a pre-payment because they might not want to pay if the process fails. Just saying, cover your bases!
Yeah, I’m definitely not doing this for free on a holiday weekend. Gotta set the right expectations!
Exactly! I just want to see if the backups are bootable without committing to a whole server rebuild.