Hello!
I have a customer a Windows Server 2019 host running Hyper-V using an REFS de-duplicated volume. Windows Server Backup is backing up the entire E: (Hyper-V VM's) to an NTFS external USB disk (F:). The WindowsImageBackup folder on the external USB disk is deleted and re-created during each server backup (so there is only only backup in the WindowsImageBackup folder).
The question is about the restore process: Can I mount the F:\WindowsImageBackup\ .vhd file, then mount the .vhdx file from the specific backed-up VM and copy files out? Will the restored files be rehydrated (with all of the deduplicated data) so that I could copy these files to a new volume?
In case that last paragraph requires explanation, I'd like to be able to mount F:\WindowsImageBackup\...\...vhd to Z: and see "Z:\Hyper-V\DC\Virtual Hard Disks\DC.vhdx" and mount that drive as Y:. Then I'd like to copy Y:\files\office.docx" (a file within the DC VM) to a non-deduplicated volume and make sure that the data integrity is good. I follow this process on servers that don't have deduplication enabled and it works great on those servers.
Part of my question deals with wondering where the deduplication pointers are stored on the backup USB Disk. Are they on the F: NTFS volume or within the .vhd file on that backup USB disk?
Any insight into this would be most helpful! Thanks so much!
Dave