SharePoint Server backup and restore plans are a complicated business. But often people don't realise just how easy it can be to avoid having to worry about a fiddly restore when something goes missing.

One of the limitations of the inbuilt backup mechanisms of SharePoint Server 2007 is the level to which they allow for restoration of backup data. While the provided tools make backing up the content of a server farm relatively easy, restoring that data is not such a simple task. Hence the existence of a multitude of expensive third-party tools to fill the gap.

What a lot of people don't realise is that, in the majority of cases, SharePoint provides tools to let you recover deleted lists and items very easily. SharePoint provides a collection of Recycle Bin functions that allow for the recovery of deleted items quickly and easily, without having to turn to backups stored on external drives or tape systems. Even better, these restores can be performed by pretty much any user with basic administration rights, so the Infrastructure and Support guys can be left alone!

Say a user accidentally deletes a document from a team library. Users have access to a site-level recycle bin where they can recover items they've deleted by accident. Items in these recycle bins, by default, stay there for 30 days, when SharePoint clears them out automatically (This is something you can configure yourself in Central Administration).

Should a user wish to restore a file, they simple find the file in the list, select it, and click Restore. It's as simple as that.

What would happen if those 30 days expired and the file was cleaned out by SharePoint? In that case, the file moves to a Site Collection level recycle bin, where it will stay for an amount of time. This recycle bin can only be accessed by Site Collection administrators, but it provides a secondary level of protection against accidental deletes. The process of restoring a file from this area is exactly the same as before. Select the file, click Restore, and it's instantly made available again in the library it was deleted from.

And this will work for any item in any list on SharePoint, and even for entire lists themselves. It won't work for sites or site collections. That is another area for another article!

So, SharePoint really does provide a range of comprehensive tools for recovering deleted items, meaning you'll hopefully not have to fall back on pulling data off backup drives and tapes.