Introduction

wbadmin stands for “Windows Backup Administrator” and is a command-line tool included in Microsoft Windows operating systems for managing and performing various backup and recovery tasks. It provides administrators with the ability to create, manage, and restore backups of the system, volumes, files, and applications. Using wbadmin, you can perform tasks such as:

  • Creating Backups: You can use wbadmin to create full system backups, incremental backups, and backup copies of specific files and folders.
  • Managing Scheduled Backups: You can schedule automatic backups to occur at specified intervals using the wbadmin tool.
  • Restoring Backups: In case of system failures or data loss, wbadmin allows you to restore your system, volumes, files, and applications from previously created backups.
  • Viewing Backup Details: You can use wbadmin to view information about existing backups, such as backup versions, backup location, and more.
  • Backup Recovery: This tool also provides options for recovering the operating system and system state from backups, which is useful for disaster recovery scenarios.

How to use wbadmin command line.

Run backup

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -include:C: -allCritical -quiet
wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -include:C:,E:,F: -allCritical -quiet
wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:\\sharedFolder\folderName -user:username -password:userPassword -include:C: -allCritical -quiet

Check backup

wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:E:
wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:E: -machine:COMP-NAME
wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:E: -machine:COMP-NAME 
wbadmin get items -version:09/11/2019-03:48 -backuptarget:E:

Restore from backup

  1. Boot a computer or VM using Installation ISO cd.
  2. startnet (run DHCP on recovery boot)
  3. Check backup before restoring.
wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:\\IPAddress\sharedfolder -machine:COMP-NAME
  1. Start recovering
wbadmin start sysrecovery -version:05/30/2017-22:05 -backuptarget:\\IPAddress\sharedfolder -machine:ds2 -recreateDisks -restoreAllVolumes
  1. If getting an access denied when trying to accessing shared file, add this command to connect the smb folder. Type your password after *.
net use \\backupserverip\folder /user: user *