AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
You need to restore a deleted file from a backed-up Azure virtual machine without restoring the entire VM. Which Azure Backup capability should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Azure Backup's File Recovery with Azure Site Recovery's failover, mistakenly thinking failover can be used for granular file restoration, when in fact Site Recovery is for full VM replication and disaster recovery, not backup-based file recovery.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
File Recovery
Azure Backup's File Recovery capability allows you to mount the VM's recovery point as a drive on your local machine, enabling you to browse and restore individual files without restoring the entire VM. This is achieved by creating an iSCSI target from the recovery point snapshot, which you can connect to from a compatible OS. It is the correct choice for granular file-level recovery from a VM backup.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cross-region restore
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region restore, while a feature of Azure Backup, is meant for region-wide outages, not routine file recovery. It allows you to restore the entire VM to a paired Azure region, preserving the full VM configuration and data. This operation is heavy-weight and incurs cross-region data transfer costs; it does not offer any selective file extraction, so using it to recover one deleted file would be unnecessarily complex and disruptive.
When this WOULD be correct
When the question asks for a capability to restore a VM or its data to a different Azure region in the event of a regional outage or disaster, Cross-region restore would be the correct answer.
- ✓
File Recovery
Why this is correct
Azure Backup's File Recovery feature is the correct tool because it is specifically designed to restore individual files or folders from an Azure VM backup without redeploying the entire VM. You select a recovery point, and Azure mounts the backup as an iSCSI target on your machine, allowing you to copy the deleted file directly. This granular recovery is efficient for single-file restores and avoids the overhead of a full VM restoration.
- ✗
Azure Site Recovery failover
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) failover is intended for disaster recovery, not file-level restore. ASR replicates entire VMs to a secondary region and, during a failover, brings the whole VM online at the target location—a process that changes the VM's identity and network configuration. It does not provide a mechanism to browse a backup point and copy out one specific file; instead, it is designed for large-scale failover scenarios, making it inappropriate for restoring a single deleted item.
When this WOULD be correct
When the question asks for a solution to fail over an entire Azure VM to a secondary region during a disaster, such as a regional outage, to maintain business continuity.
- ✗
Boot diagnostics
Why it's wrong here
Boot diagnostics is a troubleshooting feature that captures serial console output and boot screenshots of an Azure VM to help diagnose startup issues. It does not access or manage backup data, nor does it provide any file-level restore capability. Its purpose is purely observational—helping you see why a VM failed to boot—so it cannot recover deleted files from a backup.
When this WOULD be correct
When a question asks how to troubleshoot a VM that fails to boot or hangs during startup, Boot diagnostics is the correct tool to capture boot logs and screenshots.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The AZ-104 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓File RecoveryCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Azure Backup's File Recovery feature is the correct tool because it is specifically designed to restore individual files or folders from an Azure VM backup without redeploying the entire VM. You select a recovery point, and Azure mounts the backup as an iSCSI target on your machine, allowing you to copy the deleted file directly. This granular recovery is efficient for single-file restores and avoids the overhead of a full VM restoration.
✗Cross-region restoreWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Cross-region restore is used to restore a VM or its data to a paired Azure region for disaster recovery, not for restoring individual files from a backup within the same region.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
When the question asks for a capability to restore a VM or its data to a different Azure region in the event of a regional outage or disaster, Cross-region restore would be the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse the ability to restore data from a backup with the broader disaster recovery feature, assuming cross-region restore can handle file-level recovery.
✗Azure Site Recovery failoverWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Site Recovery failover is designed for disaster recovery by replicating entire VMs to a secondary region, not for granular file-level restoration from backup data.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
When the question asks for a solution to fail over an entire Azure VM to a secondary region during a disaster, such as a regional outage, to maintain business continuity.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Azure Backup's file-level recovery with Azure Site Recovery's failover capability, assuming both can restore files without realizing Site Recovery operates at the VM level.
✗Boot diagnosticsWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Boot diagnostics provides screenshots and serial logs for troubleshooting VM boot failures, not file-level recovery from backups.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
When a question asks how to troubleshoot a VM that fails to boot or hangs during startup, Boot diagnostics is the correct tool to capture boot logs and screenshots.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse diagnostic tools with recovery capabilities, thinking that any diagnostic feature can help restore files.
Analysis generated from the official AZ-104blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Managed Identities for Azure Resources
Key term
Azure Backup
Azure Backup is a cloud-based service from Microsoft that protects your data by creating and storing backups of files, folders, virtual machines, databases, and entire servers in the Azure cloud.
Key term
Azure virtual machine
An Azure virtual machine is a software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs in Microsoft's cloud, allowing you to deploy and manage applications without owning the hardware.
About these practice questions
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-104 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-104 exam.