freeStor Mini 210/310 User’s Manual
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directories from the freeStor Mini 210/310. Also, if you have performed incremental backups,
you can recover your drive to any of the previous versions available.
For example, if you perform a full backup on Monday and then perform incremental backups on
each following weekday, and on Friday you find out that some files on your computer were
infected by a virus on Thursday, you can recover your files from the Wednesday incremental
backup to a point before they were infected by the virus.
There are two ways of performing a system restore. The first method is called USB Boot, and it
allows you to use your computer using the freeStor Mini 210/310 as if it was an internal hard
drive, allowing you to continue to work without any downtime, and then recover the hard drive
when it is convenient for you. However, this method is only supported by computers that
support USB Boot in the BIOS. The second method is to use the Recovery CD included with
the unit, and is more widely supported. The following sections provide detailed instructions on
both methods of recovery.
Note: Some computers running Microsoft Windows XP don’t support booting up
from an external USB HDD if there is no internal HDD installed in the computer.
4.9.1 System Restore using USB Boot
A system restore will overwrite the data on the local drive with the backed up system drive. This
is used in the event of a hard drive failure to restore the operating system, applications, and
data. To perform a system restore by booting from the freeStor Mini 210/310, follow these
steps:
1. Install your new hard drive.
Note: If you are not restoring to a new, blank hard drive, please delete all original
partitions off of the replacement hard drive.
2. When starting up your computer, enter the BIOS (Figure 75). Each computer has a different
way to access its BIOS settings. Usually, when you start the computer, you can see a
message that tells you to press a specific key or keys to access the system settings.
Common keys to access the system BIOS are <F1>, <Esc>, and <Del>.
Figure 75: System BIOS