Back Up and Restore Windows Server: Windows Server Backup, wbadmin Schedules and File Recovery

Snapshots in a control panel are useful, but they live on the same platform as your server. Windows Server Backup is built into every edition of Windows Server and can back up the whole server or selected folders on a schedule, keep several versions and restore single files, folders or the entire system. This guide covers installing it, scheduled and one-off backups with the GUI and wbadmin, restoring files, and copying backups off the server.

Step 1: Install Windows Server Backup

In Server Manager choose Add roles and features, skip to Features and tick Windows Server Backup, or use PowerShell as Administrator:

Install-WindowsFeature Windows-Server-Backup -IncludeManagementTools
Get-WindowsFeature Windows-Server-Backup

Open it with wbadmin.msc. The command-line tool is wbadmin.

Step 2: Choose a Backup Target

On a cloud server with only one disk, add a data disk first, or back up selected folders to a local volume and copy them off the server as shown in Step 6.

Step 3: Run a One-Off Backup

# List disks and volumes Windows Server Backup can use
wbadmin get disks

# Full server backup (system, boot and all critical volumes) to drive E:
wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -allCritical -vssFull -quiet

# Only selected folders
wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -include:"C:\inetpub,C:\Data" -quiet

-allCritical includes everything needed for a bare-metal restore. -vssFull marks application files (for example SQL Server or Exchange) as backed up; use -vssCopy instead if another backup tool also backs up the same applications.

Step 4: Schedule Daily Backups

In wbadmin.msc click Backup Schedule, choose Full server or Custom, pick the time (for example 03:00) and the target. From the command line:

# Daily at 03:00 to a dedicated disk (copy the Disk Identifier from "wbadmin get disks")
wbadmin enable backup -addtarget:{a1b2c3d4-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} -schedule:03:00 -allCritical -quiet

# Or to an existing volume
wbadmin enable backup -addtarget:E: -schedule:03:00 -include:"C:\inetpub,C:\Data" -quiet

# Check the schedule and recent results
wbadmin get status
wbadmin get versions
Get-WinEvent -LogName Microsoft-Windows-Backup -MaxEvents 10 | Select-Object TimeCreated, Id, Message

Step 5: Restore Files or Folders

In wbadmin.msc choose Recover, pick the backup date, then Files and folders, and restore to the original location or to another folder. Restoring to another folder first is safer: you can compare before overwriting live data.

# Find the version identifier (date and time) of the backup you need
wbadmin get versions

# Restore a folder to D:\restore without overwriting the live files
wbadmin start recovery -version:10/13/2026-03:00 -itemType:File `
  -items:C:\inetpub\wwwroot -recoveryTarget:D:\restore -recursive -quiet

A full system restore (bare-metal recovery) is done by booting from the Windows Server installation media and choosing Repair your computer → Troubleshoot → System Image Recovery. On a cloud server this needs console access with the installation ISO mounted; open a ticket if you need help with that.

Step 6: Copy Backups Off the Server

Keep at least one copy somewhere else. Two common methods:

# Mirror a backup folder to another Windows server over a private network share
robocopy D:\Backups \\10.0.0.20\backups\web01 /MIR /Z /R:3 /W:10 /LOG:C:\Logs\robocopy.log

# Upload to object storage (S3-compatible, Backblaze B2 and others) with rclone
# after running "rclone config" once to add a remote called "offsite"
rclone copy D:\Backups offsite:web01-backups --progress

Run the copy from Task Scheduler an hour after the backup finishes, and test a restore from the off-site copy now and then: a backup you have never restored is only a hope.

FAQ

The backup fails with a VSS or "shadow copy" error

Run vssadmin list writers and look for writers that are not in a "Stable" state; restarting the related service (or the server) usually clears them. Also make sure the target has enough free space and that the source volumes have at least a few GB free for shadow copies.

How much space do I need?

The first backup is about the size of the used data. Later backups are incremental at block level, so daily changes are usually small. Plan for at least 1.5 to 2 times the used space to keep a useful number of versions.

Can I back up a MySQL or SQL Server database this way?

A VSS-aware backup of SQL Server is consistent. For MySQL/MariaDB, also take a regular dump (mysqldump) before the backup runs, so you can restore a single database without restoring the whole volume.

Still stuck after following these steps? Open a support ticket and the IMIDC 24/7 technical team will help. Include the server IP, the Windows Server version, the wbadmin command you ran and the full error message or event log entry so we can pinpoint the issue faster.