Performing manual disaster recovery

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
You should perform manual disaster recovery in the following situations:
  • Simplified Disaster Recovery is not available or has failed.
  • The Windows operating system has become corrupted and cannot be repaired using the Emergency Repair Disks.
  • The hard drive containing the Windows operating system has encountered an unrecoverable error that requires reformatting the disk.
  • The hard drive that contains the Windows operating system needs to be replaced.
  • The server has been hit by ransomware or any other virus attacks and it is better to recover the server from a good recent backup.
    Note: For Windows 2025, use Simplified Disaster Recovery (SDR) for faster and reliable recovery experience. Manual DR is available, but requires user steps after recovery. For more details, see article100074698(https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100074698).
For information about how to perform manual disaster recovery of a local Backup Exec server on a Windows computer, see the following section. This can be a member server or a domain controller.
See Performing manual disaster recovery of a local Backup Exec server on a Windows computer.
For information about how to perform manual disaster recovery of a remote Backup Exec server or remote agent on a Windows computer, see the following section. This can be a member server or a domain controller.
See Performing manual disaster recovery of a remote Backup Exec server or remote agent on a Windows computer.