Restore a previous version of a file

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To restore a previous version of a file

Locate the file that you want to restore (on the network), right-click the file, and click Properties. The Properties dialog box will appear.
On the Previous Versions tab, click the version of the file that you want to restore and click Restore. A warning message about restoring a previous version will appear. Click Yes to complete the procedure.

Caution

Restoring a previous version will delete the current version. If you choose to restore a previous version of a folder, the folder will be restored to its state at the date and time of the version you selected. You will lose any changes that you have made to files in the folder since that time. If you do not want to delete the current version of a file or folder, use Copy to copy the previous version to a different location.

Notes

If the Previous Versions tab does not appear in the Properties dialog box, Shadow Copies of Shared Folders might not be enabled on the shared resource. Shadow copies are copies of files that are located on the server and appear as previous versions. Please contact your administrator for more information.
If there are no previous versions listed, the file has not changed since the oldest copy was taken.
When you restore a previous version of a folder, files in the current folder that were not contained in the previous version of the folder will not be erased.
When you restore a file, the file permissions will not be changed; permissions will remain the same as they were before the restore. When you copy a previous version of a file, the permissions will be set to the default permissions for the directory where the copy of the file is placed.
Restoring a large directory puts a heavy load on the file server and can result in previous versions being deleted. Try to restore individual files instead of entire directories whenever possible.

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.