To perform bare metal recovery, you need to open a CMD command prompt in Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). If you cannot boot into WinRE, you can use a Windows installation disc or recovery drive used for disaster recovery. To open a command prompt from Windows installation disc, go Next > Repair > Troubleshooting > Command Prompt. Then run the following command to start the restoring process:
Syntax: WBADMIN START SYSRECOVERY
-version:<VersionIdentifier>
-backupTarget:{<BackupDestinationVolume> | <NetworkShareHostingBackup>}
[-machine:<BackupMachineName>]
[-restoreAllVolumes]
[-recreateDisks]
[-excludeDisks]
[-skipBadClusterCheck]
[-quiet]
Description: Runs a system recovery (bare metal recovery) based on the
parameters that you specify. To use this command, you must be a member of
the Backup Operators group or the Administrators group.
Parameters:
-version Specifies the version identifier for the backup to recover in
MM/DD/YYYY-HH:MM format. If you do not know the version
identifier, type WBADMIN GET VERSIONS.
-backupTarget Specifies the storage location that contains the backup or
backups that you want to recover. This parameter is useful
when the storage location is different from where backups
of this computer are usually stored.
-machine Specifies the name of the computer that you want to recover.
This parameter is useful when multiple computers have been
backed up to the same location. Should be used when
-backupTarget is specified.
-restoreAllVolumes Recovers all volumes from the selected backup. If this
parameter is not specified, only critical volumes (volumes
that contain the system state and operating system
components) are recovered. This parameter is useful when
you need to recover non-critical volumes during system
recovery.
-recreateDisks Recovers a disk configuration to the state that existed when
the backup was created.
Warning: This parameter deletes all data on volumes that
host operating system components. It might also delete data
from data volumes.
-excludeDisks Valid only when specified with the -recreateDisks parameter
and must be input as a comma-delimited list of disk
identifiers (as listed in output of WBADMIN GET DISKS).
Excluded disks are not partitioned or formatted. This
parameter helps to preserve data on disks that you do not
want modified during the recovery.
-skipBadClusterCheck Skips checking your recovery destination disks for bad
cluster information. If you are restoring to an alternate
server or hardware, we recommend that you do not use this
parameter. You can manually run CHKDSK /B on your recovery
disks at any time to check them for bad clusters and update
the file system information accordingly.
Warning: Until you run CHKDSK as described, the bad clusters
reported on your recovered system might not be accurate.
-quiet Runs the command with no prompts to the user.
Examples:
WBADMIN START SYSRECOVERY -version:03/31/2005-09:00 -backupTarget:d:
WBADMIN START SYSRECOVERY -version:04/30/2005-09:00 -backupTarget:
\\servername\share -machine:server01
Wbadmin start sysrecovery –version:[backup version identifier] –backuptarget:[backup location] -machine:[name of the computer to be restored]
If you don’t know what the version identifier is, you can run “wbadmin get versions” to get version identifier.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>wbadmin get versions
wbadmin 1.0 – Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Backup time: 20/11/2017 1:26 PM
Backup target: 1394/USB Disk labeled Seagate Expansion Drive(F:)
Version identifier: 11/20/2017-03:56
Can recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery, System State
Snapshot ID: {5d3b8e7a-68cc-49d9-abe5-f9f6690e7923}
Backup time: 12/12/2017 11:10 AM
Backup target: 1394/USB Disk labeled Seagate Expansion Drive(F:)
Version identifier: 12/12/2017-01:40
Can recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery, System State
Snapshot ID: {b0bbe49f-a311-4a63-8cde-12c975847cc4}
Under WinRE, the drive letter might change even when you try to restore to the original machine, so the program may fail to find the backup when use drive letter to specify the backup location. It is recommended to use volume GUID-based path when specifying backup target. You can run “mountvol” to show volume GUID path. See Windows 10 get volume GUID’s
Example: Wbadmin start sysrecovery –version: 12/12/2017-01:40 –backuptarget:E: -machine:MyComputer
IMPORTANT: You can not restore to dissimilar firmware types i.e. (BIOS to UEFI) or vice versa.