Microsoft iSCSI software target - KB 949499

More information here: Installing the VSS Hardware Provider for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target on Windows Server 2008 - Jose Barreto's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

I've installed the iSCSI software target client software on my server 2008R2 server, setup the shadow copy but i don't quite understand how it works, perhaps someone can explain what it's actually doing for me...

I've created a shadow copy of drive H: and exposed it as drive J: so now i can see two identical volumes, my normal understanding of shadow copies is the whole right click on a folder > previous versions > select a date and restore files or folders. How is this way dating the information? is it creating a shadow copy on specific times and dates or is it a one off that i've just created as a backup shadow copy purely of the moment i said "create" only for it to not make another until i tell it to create again? It's not explained very well!

Any help muchly appreciated

Ok is this how it works..

When a file is writen it writes to both the shadow copy and normal storage, but when a file is removed it only removes it from the storage, meaning i always have a copy of the data as it is at this current moment in time or when new information was writen or changed and that data will only ever be added too and never removed? still scratching my head staring at the server with a face like im going to stab it if it doesnt tell me what it's doing lol

VSS takes a series of snapshots either scheduled or manually defined. Once the volume is snapshotted any further write operations from that point on use copy on write which will write the changed blocks to primary storage and copy any changed blocks into the allocated shadowcopy space.

When you look at previous versions it is just the differences between these snapshots. I am not sure of your exact setup but it is probably mounting the last snapshotted state as a drive so it will show you the files as they were at the time of the last snapshot.