Recovering a drive

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
You can set various options to customize the recovery of a drive.
To customize the recovery of a drive
  1. On the Tasks menu, click Recover My Computer.
  2. Select a recovery point and click Tasks>Custom Recovery to start the Recover Drive Wizard.
  3. On the wizard's Welcome panel, click Next.
  4. In the Recovery Point to Restore panel, set the options you want.
    Recovery point file name Specifies the recovery point you want to use to recover the drive.
    You can use the recovery point that is already added to this field, or you can browse to a different recovery point.
    If the recovery point is located in a hidden drive, you must specify the location of the hidden drive in the following format:
    DiskNo-PartitionNo\Filename.v2i or DiskNo-PartitionNo\Filename.iv2i
    For example, if the hidden drive location is on Disk 2 and Partition 3, you must enter 2-3\file.v2i. Where 2 is the disk number and 3 is the partition number.
    Browse Lets you browse to a path that contains a recovery point.
    For example, you can browse for a recovery point (.v2i) or incremental recovery point (.iv2i) file on an external (USB) drive. Or, you can browse to a network location, removable media, or Microsoft OneDrive for Business location.
    See About support of OneDrive for Business .
    Browse for OpenStorage Destination Lets you browse an OpenStorage storage destination that you want to use for restoring the recovery points.
    See OpenStorage destination options for recovery .
    User name Specifies the user name if you specify a recovery point file name that is located in a network path.
    See Rules for network credentials .
    Password Specifies the password to a network path.
  5. In the Target Drive panel, select one or more drives that you want to restore, and then click Next.
If the drive does not have enough space available to restore a recovery point, press Shift. Select multiple, contiguous destinations that exist on the same hard disk.
Note: When you select aTarget Drive, theSector Sizeof the backed-up drive and the destination drive, must be the same.
  1. If the recovery point is password-protected, in the Password dialog box, type the password, and then click OK.
  2. In the Recovery Options panel, select the restore options you want.
    Ignore recovery point corruption during restore (potential data loss) Automatically excludes the corrupted data and continues to restore the recovery point.
    The restored data does not contain the corrupted portion of data.
    Note: There may be potential data loss as corrupted data is excluded from restore.
    Verify recovery point before restore Verifies whether a recovery point is valid or corrupt before it is restored.
    This option can significantly increase the time that is required for the recovery to complete.
    Do not verify recovery point before restore Does not verify whether a recovery point is valid or corrupt before it is restored. During restore, if there is corrupted data on the recovery point, an error message is displayed and you cannot restore the recovery point.
    Check for file system errors Checks the restored drive for errors after the recovery point is restored.
    Resize restored drive Expands the drive automatically to occupy the target drive's remaining unallocated space.
    Set drive active (for booting OS) Makes the restored drive the active partition (for example, the drive from which the computer starts).
    This option is appropriate if you restore the drive on which your operating system is installed.
    Restore original disk signature Restores the original, physical disk signature of the hard drive.
    Disk signatures are part of all Windows operating systems that Veritas System Recovery supports. Disk signatures are required to use the hard drive.
    Select this option if either of the following situations are true:
    - Your computer's drive letters are atypical (for example, assigned letters other than C, D, E, and so forth).
    - You restore a recovery point to a new, empty hard disk.
    Primary partition Because hard disks are limited to four primary partitions, this option is appropriate if the drive has four or fewer partitions.
    Logical partition This option is appropriate if you need more than four partitions. You can have up to three primary partitions, plus any number of logical partitions, up to the maximum size of your hard disk.
    Drive letter Lets you assign a drive letter to the partition.
The options that are available depend on the restore destination that you have selected.
  1. Click Next , and then review your selections.
  2. Click Finish, then clickYes.
Sometime the wizard cannot lock the drive to perform the recovery in Windows (typically, because the drive is in use by a program). In such cases, make sure that the drive is not in use. For example, close any files or applications that may be in use, and then click Retry.
If the Retryoption fails, clickIgnoreto attempt a forced lock on the drive. IfIgnore fails, you might be prompted to insert the Veritas System Recovery Disk. You must then manually start the recovery environment so that you can complete the recovery. When the recovery is finished, the computer restarts automatically.
More Information
Recovering a secondary drive