Challenge
When performing a Guest files restore (File Level Restore/FLR) of a server using Storage Spaces, drives are not listed in the Backup Browser.
The properties of these disks will appear as Microsoft Storage Space Device.
Cause
Storage Spaces volumes are not supported for file level recovery.
Solution
As a restore workaround, use an Instant VM Recovery to recover guest files from such VMs. See: KB1459: How to Restore Individual Files When FLR Fails.
As a long-term solution to allow the FLR to work as expected, consider moving the data off the storage spaces drive to a regular single virtual disk backed drive.
More Information
As an alternate backup method that allows for the restoration of individual files from a Storage Spaces drive, use Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows to back up the VM from within the guest OS.
Note: When a machine using storage spaces is backed up using Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, the backup operation reads the content of the Storage Spaces disk and stores it in the backup file as if it were a single disk. This is because Storage Spaces presents the disk to the OS as a single virtual disk. Therefore, a new single disk is restored during an export or Instant Recovery operation, not the individual disks that constitute the original Storage Spaces volume.
