[Guest Post] Restoring a Windows System Image from a backup on a network location

This post will explain to you how to perform a full system restore from a backup made with Windows Server Backup (WSB) on Windows 2012R2/2016. The only two things you will need are a backup made with Windows Server Backup and an ISO file of the corresponding Windows version that you want to restore.

This post assumes a virtual environment but you can just as easily apply this guide to a physical machine.

1. Create a virtual machine with the same specs as the original machine.
2. Boot this VM with the Windows ISO file.
3. Click "Repair your computer".
4. Click "Troubleshoot".
5. Go to "Command Prompt"
6. Initialize the network adapter using "wpeinit" and verify that the nic is up using "ipconfig".
7. Configure the network adapter with the command "netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”Ethernet” source=static address=x.x.x.x mask=x.x.x.x gateway=x.x.x.x"). Verify the configuration was successful by running "ipconfig" again.
8. Run "bmrui" to start the restore wizard.
9. Press "Cancel" when warned that no system image could be found.
10. Click "Next".
11. Click "Advanced" and select "Restore from a network location".
12. Enter the UNC path of where your backup files you want to restore are located. (This must be a share with the "WindowsImageBackup" folder in it.)
13. Enter credentials to connect to the share.
14. Select the image to restore. Click "Next".
15. Click the backup and click "Next".
16. Wait for the process to finish.
17. Reboot into the server.

If everything went according to plan your server should now be restored and fully functional.

Note: Using this procedure I successfully restored a Terminal Services server.

[1] https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2009/02/04/windows-server-backup-2008-restore-from-network-location/