Method and system for instant restore of system volume from a backup image
Techniques are disclosed for restoring a system volume on a computing system without requiring the system volume to be fully restored prior to being used or requiring the use of a dedicated recovery environment (e.g., the WinPE or BartPE environments). Instead, the computing system is booted directly from the restore image or by redirecting I/O interrupts to the restore image. That is, when user initiates a restore process, the system boots from the backup itself. Once booted, a background process can complete the restore process.
1. A computer-implemented method for restoring a system volume from a backup image, the method comprising:
prior to launching a boot loader on a computing system, receiving an indication to restore the system volume from the backup image;
redirecting an interrupt associated with disk I/O to a redirector function configured to perform certain read operations directed to the system volume from the backup image, wherein the redirector function performs a read operation by either (i) reading data from the backup image and writing the data to the system volume being restored or (ii) reading data from the system volume;
launching the boot loader, wherein the boot loader is configured to load an operating system stored in the backup image; and
after the boot loader turns over control for disk I/O to the operating system, launching a disk filter driver configured to perform certain read operations directed to the system volume from the backup image and to perform write operations by writing to the system volume, wherein the disk filter driver performs a read operation directed to the system volume by either (i) reading data from the backup image and writing the data to the system volume being restored or (ii) reading data from the system volume, and wherein the disk filter driver is configured to complete restoring the system volume from the backup image by copying disk sectors from the backup image to the system volume.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interrupt is an INT13 interrupt on an x86 architecture.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backup image is stored in a virtual hard disk (VHD) formatted file.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backup image is stored on a local partition of a storage drive on the computing system.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the redirector function performs a copy-on-read process to copy data read from the backup image to the system volume.
6. A computer-implemented method for restoring a system volume, the method comprising:
prior to launching a boot loader on a computing system, receiving an indication to restore the system volume from a virtual hard disk (VHD);
launching a disk filter driver configured to attach to a driver configured to perform disk I/O from the VHD, wherein the disk filter driver is configured to perform read operations directed to the system volume by either (i) reading from the VHD and writing to the system volume or (ii) reading from the system volume and wherein the disk filter driver is configured to perform write operations by writing to the system volume;
after booting an operating system stored on the VHD, completing the restoring of the system volume from the VHD by copying disk sectors from the VHD to the system volume, wherein the disk filter driver is configured to restore the system volume, at least in part, by performing a copy-on-read process for disk I/O reads directed to the VHD; and
after restoring the system volume, transitioning the disk filter driver to a pass through mode which directs disk I/O read and write requests to the restored system volume.
7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a processor, perform an operation for restoring a system volume from a backup image, the operation comprising:
prior to launching a boot loader on a computing system, receiving an indication to restore the system volume from the backup image; and
redirecting an interrupt associated with disk I/O to a redirector function configured to perform certain read operations directed to the system volume from the backup image, wherein the redirector function performs a read operation by either (i) reading data from the backup image and writing the data to the system volume being restored or (ii) reading data from the system volume;
launching the boot loader, wherein the boot loader is configured to load an operating system stored in the backup image; and
after the boot loader turns over control for disk I/O to the operating system, launching a disk filter driver configured to perform certain read operations directed to the system volume from the backup image and to perform write operations by writing to the system volume, wherein the disk filter driver performs a read operation directed to the system volume by either (i) reading data from the backup image and writing the data to the system volume being restored or (ii) reading data from the system volume, and wherein the disk filter driver is configured to complete restoring the system volume from the backup image by copying disk sectors from the backup image to the system volume.
8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the interrupt is an INT13 interrupt on an x86 architecture.
9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the backup image is stored in a virtual hard disk (VHD) formatted file.
10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the backup image is stored on a local partition of a storage drive on the computing system.
11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the redirector function performs a copy-on-read process to copy data read from the backup image to the system volume.
12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a processor, perform an operation for restoring a system volume, the operation comprising:
prior to launching a boot loader on a computing system, receiving an indication to restore the system volume from a virtual hard disk (VHD);
launching a disk filter driver configured to attach to a driver configured to perform disk I/O from the VHD, wherein the disk filter driver is configured to perform read operations directed to the system volume by either (i) reading from the VHD and writing to the system volume or (ii) reading from the system volume and wherein the disk filter driver is configured to perform write operations by writing to the system volume;
after booting an operating system stored on the VHD, completing the restoring of the system volume from the VHD by copying disk sectors from the VHD to the system volume, wherein the disk filter driver is configured to restore the system volume, at least in part, by performing a copy-on-read process for disk I/O reads directed to the VHD; and
after restoring the system volume, transitioning the disk filter driver to a pass through mode which directs disk I/O read and write requests to the restored system volume.
13. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing code, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation for restoring a system volume from a backup image, the operation comprising:
prior to launching a boot loader on a computing system, receiving an indication to restore the system volume from the backup image,
redirecting an interrupt associated with disk I/O to a redirector function configured to perform certain read operations directed to the system volume from the backup image, wherein the redirector function performs a read operation by either (i) reading data from the backup image and writing the data to the system volume being restored or (ii) reading data from the system volume, and
launching the boot loader, wherein the boot loader is configured to load an operating system stored in the backup image, and
after the boot loader turns over control for disk I/O to the operating system, launching a disk filter driver configured to perform certain read operations directed to the system volume from the backup image and to perform write operations by writing to the system volume, wherein the disk filter driver performs a read operation directed to the system volume by either (i) reading data from the backup image and writing the data to the system volume being restored or (ii) reading data from the system volume, and wherein the disk filter driver is configured to complete restoring the system volume from the backup image by copying disk sectors from the backup image to the system volume.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the interrupt is an INT13 interrupt on an x86 architecture.