Windows Backup Network Restore

It's an old post, but this issue still remains in 2017 and Windows 10 Creators Update (ver 1703). Anyways, I managed to find a workaround. The workaround is to use command line tool WBADMIN which is installed by default when you create Windows 10 repair disc.

    Boot with your repair disc.
    Choose keyboard.
    Choose an option: Troubleshoot.
    Advanced Options: Command prompt.

Now you're in command prompt.

Start the network with command:

startnet

Check that you have valid IP configuration. If you don't, install necessarry driver and check again.

ipconfig

Connect to your network location which holds your backups.

net use \\pc1\backups /user:localhost\operator

In the example above adjust for your network name and user name.

Run wbadmin on it's own to see available parameters.

wbadmin

Run wbadmin to retrieve available versions of backups that can be recovered.

wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:\\pc1\backups

This will retrieve available version identifiers in the format 'MM/DD/YYYY-HH:MM'

Use the version identifier from above to restore your backup.

In the example below, I removed old disk (250 GB) and replaced it with a bigger one (500GB).

I chose to recreate disks and restore all volumes. Originaly, I had one disk with two volumes - 'system reserved' volume (500MB) and another volume occupying the rest of the disk.

The command below recreated these two volumes succesfully, but when I signed in, I had to extend the volume, because it created it with the original size of 250 GB.

Modify the command below to your needs. specifying version you want to restore, where your backup is being stored (-backupTarget), the machine you want to restore (-machine) and whether you want to recreate disks an restore all volumes.

wbadmin start sysrecovery -version:05/30/2017-22:05 -backuptarget:\\pc1\backups -machine:ds2 -recreateDisks -restoreAllVolumes

wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Troubleshooting information for BMR: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=225039

You have chosen to recover volume(s) \\?\Volume{319c017e-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\,C:
from the backup created on 5/30/2017 2:05 PM to the original location.
Warning:  You are about to recreate volumes, which will erase the data on all
volumes that contain operating system components. This action might also
delete data on data volumes. The deleted data will be replaced with the data
in the backup. If the disk layout is different from the layout when the
backup was created, this action will also erase data on the other disks. Once
the recovery operation starts, you cannot recover the erased data, even if
the action fails or is restarted.

Do you want to continue?
[Y] Yes [N] No y

Preparing all the volumes on all disk(s) for recovery.
Retrieving volume information...
Running a recovery operation for volume System Reserved (500.00 MB), copied (0%).
Running a recovery operation for volume System Reserved (500.00 MB), copied (94%).
Running a recovery operation for volume (C:), copied (0%)

Running a recovery operation for volume (C:), copied (20%).

...

Running a recovery operation for volume (C:), copied (97%).
Running a recovery operation for volume (C:), copied (99%).
The recovery operation for volume (C:) successfully completed.
The recovery operation completed.
Summary of the recovery operation:
--------------------

The recovery operation for volume System Reserved (500.00 MB) successfully completed.
The recovery operation for volume (C:) successfully completed.

That's all. Good luck!