You have two Windows Server VMs, VM1 and VM2. VM1’s OS disk is encrypted with Azure Disk Encryption and is backed up daily with Azure Backup. Several files on VM1’s OS disk are corrupted. To restore the corrupted files from the latest recovery point while minimizing total restore time, what should you do first?

The most efficient first step to restore corrupted files from an Azure Disk Encrypted VM is to generate and download a script. This script, provided by Azure Backup, contains the necessary commands and keys to decrypt the backed-up disk and mount it as a data disk on another VM (like VM2). This allows you to browse and copy only the corrupted files, minimizing restore time compared to a full VM or disk restore. Restoring the entire VM or disk to its original or a new location would take significantly longer and overwrite existing data, which is not ideal for targeted file recovery. Attaching the disk to VM2 directly without decryption would not allow access to the encrypted data.