Perform a backup and restore with WBAdmin
In addition to the Backup And Restore (Windows 7) tool, Windows 10 includes another backup tool, the Windows Backup tool that you can use from a command line. This tool is also found in Windows Server and is useful if you need to automate or create a backup job on several computers. Use the WBAdmin.exe command to create, configure, and restore backup jobs. In this section, you review some of the commonly used applications for WBAdmin.
Backing up using WBAdmin
The Windows 10 version of WBAdmin is a simplified version of the utility that is available with the Microsoft Server operating systems and offers some of low-level features such as the generation of index listings of all files and folders within an image data file. To perform a recovery using WBAdmin, you must be a member of the Backup Operators group or the Administrators group, or have been delegated the appropriate permissions. You must also run WBAdmin from an elevated command prompt. A number of the subcommands are not supported in Windows 10, and you must boot to Windows RE to perform a restore operation of data that was created using the WBAdmin Start Backup subcommand.
Table lists the command-line syntax of WBAmin.exe.
Command Description Wbadmin get List the details of backups available from the local versions computer or from specified computer Wbadmin enable Configures and enables a regularly scheduled backup backup Wbadmin startup Runs a one-time backup; if used with no parameters, backup uses the settings from the daily backup schedule Wbadmin get items Lists the items included in backup Wbadmin start Runs a recovery of the volumes, applications, files, recovery or folders specified. Supported only in a Windows Recovery Environment (RE)
You can find additional detailed information relating to WBAdmin by typing WBAdmin /? at the command prompt. The content provided in this section should be sufficient for your exam preparation, and if required, you can find a detailed TechNet resource at https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc754015(v=ws.11).aspx.
For example, if you connect a removable hard drive to your computer, which uses the drive letter E, the following examples guide you through the process of performing a backup and restore using the WBAdmin command-line tool.
To back up the entire contents of the C drive to a backup drive located on E, follow these steps.
- Right-click Start and select Command Prompt (Admin); accept UAC.
- Type the following command.
WBadmin start backup -BackupTarget:E: -Include:C: - Type Y to begin the backup operation.
The tool creates a shadow copy of the volume and then creates a block copy of the volume. A simple log file relating to the operation is created, and this is stored in C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsBackup\.
The WBAdmin utility saves the image backup in a WindowsImageBackup folder on the target drive.
After you have created a backup, you can list backup images created on the system by using the following command.
wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:E:
Restoring data using WBAdmin
To recover from a backup that you have previously created with WBAdmin, boot to a Windows RE and type wbadmin get versions to provide the version information of the available backups. For example, to recover a backup of volume E from May 31, 2016, at 17:12, type the following command at a command prompt and then press Enter.
wbadmin start recovery -version:05/31/2016-17:12 -itemType:Volume -items:\\?\
Volume{a6f2e427-0000-0000-0000-501f00000000}\ -BackupTarget:D: -RecoveryTarget:E:
Tip
The Wbadmin start recovery command is only supported in Windows RE and not in a normal Windows 10 administrative command prompt. Be careful because the drive letters of the mounted volumes can be different in Windows RE from those in Windows 10. You might need to replace the drive letters in your wbadmin start recovery options.