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Recover the System State Using a Command Line

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

You can use the Wbadmin start systemstaterecovery command to recover the system state for a computer.

To recover the system state by using a command line

  1. To open a command prompt with elevated privileges, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

  2. At the prompt, type: wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -version:<VersionIdentifier> -showsummary [-backupTarget:{<VolumeName> | <NetworkSharePath>}] [-machine:<BackupMachineName>] [-recoveryTarget:<TargetPathForRecovery>] [-authsysvol] [-quiet]

    For example, to run a system state recovery of the backup from 04/30/2005 at 9:00 A.M. that is stored on the shared resource \\servername\share for server01, type: wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -version:04/30/2005-09:00 -backupTarget:\\servername\share -machine:server01

Value Description

-version:<VersionIdentifier>

Specifies the version for the backup to recover in MM/DD/YYYY-HH:MM format, as listed by Wbadmin get versions.

-showsummary

Reports the summary of the last run of this command. This parameter cannot be accompanied by any other parameters.

-backupTarget:{<VolumeName> | <NetworkSharePath>}

Specifies the storage location that contains the backup or backups that you want to recover. Useful when the location is different from the location where backups of this computer are usually stored. NetworkSharePath should be in Universal Naming Convention (UNC) format.

-machine:<BackupMachineName>

Specifies the name of the computer for which you want to recover a backup. Useful when multiple computers have been backed up to the same location. Should be used when -backupTarget is specified.

-recoveryTarget:<TargetPathforRecovery>

Specifies the directory to restore to. This is useful if the files that comprise the system state are restored to an alternate location.

-authsysvol

Performs an authoritative restore of Sysvol.

-quiet

Runs the command with no prompts to the user.

Additional considerations

  • To recover the system state using Wbadmin, you must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

  • If you are using BitLocker Drive Encryption to protect your server and you need to perform a system state recovery, make sure to reapply BitLocker Drive Encryption. This will not happen automatically--it must be enabled explicitly. For instructions, see the Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption Step-by-Step Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93107).

Additional references