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Windows Server Backup 2008 Restore from Network Location

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Hello my name Scott McArthur and I am a Senior Support Escalation Engineer in the Windows Platforms group. Today’s blog submission is how to use Windows Server Backup to do a complete system restore over the network. This blog is specific to Windows Server 2008 but the process is basically the same for Windows Vista.

Assumptions

You have added the Windows Server Backup feature to your 2008 install and run a Complete PC Backup to a network location, \\server\share

The following steps show how to do this restore by using the Windows Recovery Environment UI in addition to a sample way to do this with command line.

If the network adapter or hard drive requires a third-party driver, you should put those drivers on a USB flash drive.

1. Start the computer by using the Windows Server 2008 DVD

2. On the first screen Click Next.

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3. Select the “Repair your computer” option in the lower-left corner of screen.

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4. It will show you any currently installed operating systems. Click Next.

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If this screen is blank you may have to load a third-party driver for your mass storage driver. You can click Load Drivers to load the mass storage driver from your USB flash drive.

5. Click “Windows Complete PC Restore”.

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6. It will report “A valid backup location could not be found”. Click cancel.

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7. Select “Restore a different backup” then next.

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8. Click Advanced.

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9. If the network adapter driver is included with Windows Server 2008 you can click “Search for a backup on the network. If the network adapter driver is not included you have to click “install a driver” and browse to your driver to load it. In my test I was using a Hyper-V virtual machine with the legacy network adapter. The legacy network adapter driver is in Windows Server 2008 so that it just works. The synthetic driver is not included.

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You would receive an error similar to the following when you try to connect to the server.

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10. Click Yes to the “Are you sure you want to connect to the network” and then specify the path of your backup. You can use IP address instead to eliminate any netbios/dns issues.

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11. Select the backup listed and then click Next.

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12. Select the backup then Next.

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13. You are presented with the restore options.

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The exclude disks option enables you to exclude disks from the restore process.

The advanced button has the following options.

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14. Click Finish to confirm the settings.

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If you selected “Format and repartition disks” you are prompted with “Windows Complete PC restore will format the disks you chose to restore, which will erase all existing data”. Click “I confirm that I want to format the disks and restore the backup”.

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You can monitor the progress through the final dialog box.

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The restart will automatically occur or you can delay it.

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For some scenarios, you may want to do this manually. The following lists the basic general steps to do this at the command prompt.

1. At the following screen select the “Command prompt” option.

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2. Run the following commands at the command prompt.

If your network adapter is not included with Windows you need to load the driver using drvload.

Drvload driver.inf

Where driver.inf is the inf for the network adapter. You can load this from an usb flash drive or the local drive if it is available.

Start /w wpeinit

Run ipconfig to verify the driver loaded and you have a valid ip address. If you have to set a static IP address, you could use netsh. For example

“netsh interface ipv4 set address name = "<idx>" source=static address=<staticIP> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway>”

Netsh Commands for Interface (IPv4 and IPv6)

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770948.aspx

Net use z: \\server\share /user:username

Where \\server\share is the location that you saved your backup to. There should be a WindowsImageBackup folder in the root of the share/directory that you saved your backup to.

wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:\\server\share

You should output similar to the following

wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

The times of the backups displayed are based on the timezone of the current
operating system you have booted into.
The timezone used currently is (GMT -08:00) Pacific Standard Time

Backup time: 1/8/2009 11:20 AM
Backup target: Network Share labeled \\server\share
Version identifier: 01/08/2009-19:20
Can Recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery

From this you must have the Version Identifier for the next step.

Note this basically wipes the drive so be careful when you use the next command

wbadmin start sysrecovery –backuptarget:\\server\share -version:01/08/2009-19:20 -recreatedisks –restoreallvolumes -quiet

Hopefully this helps show how to do a basic restore of a Windows Server 2008 computer.

Scott McArthur
Senior Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    PingBack from http://www.ditii.com/2009/02/05/how-to-restore-from-network-location-using-windows-server-backup-on-windows-server-2008-vista/
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The Core Team has posted really helpful information on how to use Windows Server backup to run a complete
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    This didn't work for me with a 2008 R2 Hyper-V VM. I kept getting "An internal error occurred. The following information might help you resolve the error:The network path was not found. (0x80070035)", until I did this...https://secure.backupassist.com/blog/support/how-to-restore-a-server-2008-image-backup-to-a-new-hyper-v-vm-from-nas/I didn't remove the existing NIC, just added a Legacy one in the VM Settings.
  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2010
    Nice job MS goldplating a looking up a SIMPLE back up set on a share.  I'll add this (yet) as another feature that almost worked.  I've got backup sets... but the UI cannot find them.  Nice!
  • Anonymous
    November 23, 2010
    Right on Rand, we have the same problem. Have a backup on a network share, but can't use it. I had the same problem with my laptop - had a network backup and couldn't access it.The best part is that it doesn't even help to copy the backup to a local USB drive, it just won't accept it. So unfortunately you're best off with an expensive 3rd party backup solution, or attach local USB drives to all of your server you want to back up :-)
  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2010
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2010
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    January 10, 2011
    Use the command prompt to initiate the backup rather then UI. CMD works for me most of time whereas the UI doesnt. The steps mentioned above work a treat for CMD restore.
  • Anonymous
    March 10, 2011
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2012
    Between steps 10 and 11 you leave out very critical steps necessary to establish network connectivity. I don't know how you did it without.10a. Open a command window.10b. WPEINIT10c. netsh int ipv4 set address name="Local Area Connection" static 172.21.254.172 255.255.255.0 172.21.254.1 1  (replace with your IP addresses)See social.technet.microsoft.com/.../e0e7e4b6-dd54-40e8-87df-076890ef12f6
  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2015
    Though it's a very long tutorial but very helpful. We are working for http://www.colorexpertsbd.com/ no 1 image manipulation company in the world. We need Windows Server Backup 2008 Restore from Network Location regularly. So it will help us a lot.
  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2016
    I'm having problems with restore from network. I've find info about how i can restore to hyper-v but i need to restore to a vsphere. There are any network card compatible with it or how i can add the correct driver for my network card?Lots of thanks!
  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2017
    Thank you for this article, I was having issues doing a BMR from a network location and the information on how to set the ip manually with CMD was all I was needing, well that and using the share servers ip address instead of name.
  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2019
    This tutorial is too much helps me for my business, when I am trying to create windows server backup.
  • Anonymous
    January 09, 2019
    HI Jeff Hughes, I would like to thank you for sharing a really informative article about Windows Server Backup 2008 Restore from Network Location, But it has been 10 Years you published the article, can you let us know about Windows Server Backup 2018, Actually my Startup Clipping Path Associate ( https://www.clippingpathassociate.com/) need updated information about how to backup windows server 2018. I am waiting for your response.