Full restore of running system means to restore all drives, or at least system drive and System State, while the system is running. This must be done in 1 single restore run, then reboot the system.
Run the Full Restore as Administrator, and the system to be restored in Directory Services Restore Mode. Directory Services Restore Mode (or Safe Mode) is best even for restoring Windows Workstation, to avoid interference with Windows File Protection (WFP). After reboot, press F8 and Select Directory Services Restore Mode, before running the full restore.
Best is if servicepack of running system and restored system are same version.
Install the new system in the same directory and drive as the backed up system. If the backed up system was installed in directory C:\WINDOWS, the system installed before full restore should also be in C:\WINDOWS. It is best if drive number and partition number are also the same as in backup.
It is best to avoid access errors. This can be done if backup server and computer to be restored have same Administrator user account name and password. Before the restore, change the password on backup server with Ctrl-Alt-Del, set it to same value as computer to be restored.
During Restore, when Overwrite Newer file-dialog pops up, select Restore and All files, then press OK.
For full restore of a system with SQL Server or Exchange Server installed, reinstall Windows first and Restore all the drives, and System State first, then reboot. This will restore SQL server and Exchange server installations, but not the databases. Exchange Server volumes will not be mounted because they were not yet restored, and SQL server will not start, because there is no master database. Exchange Server can then be fully restored with Stratesave. After restoring Exchange Server, it's volumes can be mounted with Exchange System Manager or by reboot. Full restoration of SQL server is described here.
During Windows boot, do not press spacebar "to enter last known good menu". This applies to session before and after full restore.
After a full Restore, perform a full backup, before making incremental or differential backups again. Full backup made before the full restore cannot be used as a base for incremental or differential backups made after the full restore, so a full backup is required after the full restore.
Windows registry has entries 'FilesNotToBackup' and 'KeysNotToRestore'. These keys to some degree allow a full restore even with changed hardware. Stratesave follows these guidelines.
If the System is fully restored with System State, files and directories, it might not be necessary to also restore the VSS databases, because they were backed up as files under VSS, and therefore restored with full restore.