Backup and Recovery

Updated: July 2, 2009

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 contain new and updated features to help you create backups and, if needed, perform a recovery of your operating system, applications, and data.

Overview

Getting Started

Installed Help

Help installed with the product is also available in the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Library.

Backup and Recovery (Windows Server 2008)
Backup and Recovery (Windows Server 2008 R2)

Technical References

Volume Shadow Copy Service

Command-line Tools

The wbadmin command is the primary command for backing up or recovering a computer running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. For more information, see Wbadmin.

Other commands for backup and recovery include the following:

Chkdsk
Diskshadow
Dsamain
Dsdbutil
Ntdsutil
Recover

Vssadmin

Note
The wbadmin command replaces the ntbackup command that was released with previous versions of Windows. You cannot recover backups that you created with ntbackup by using wbadmin. However, a version of ntbackup is available as a download for users who want to recover backups that they created using ntbackup. This downloadable version of ntbackup enables you to perform recoveries only of legacy backups, and it cannot be used to create new backups. To download this version of ntbackup, see Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility.

Note

The wbadmin command replaces the ntbackup command that was released with previous versions of Windows. You cannot recover backups that you created with ntbackup by using wbadmin. However, a version of ntbackup is available as a download for users who want to recover backups that they created using ntbackup. This downloadable version of ntbackup enables you to perform recoveries only of legacy backups, and it cannot be used to create new backups. To download this version of ntbackup, see Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility.

Troubleshooting

General Resources

Windows Server Forums: Backup - Windows and Windows Server
Troubleshooting Backup and Recovery (Windows Server 2008)
Troubleshooting Backup and Recovery (Windows Server 2008 R2)
Diagnosing Failures in Windows Server Backup - Part 1 (VSS/SPP Errors)

Events and Errors

Windows Server Backup (Windows Server 2008)
Windows Server Backup (Windows Server 2008 R2)
Shadow Copies of Shared Folders (Windows Server 2008)
Shadow Copies of Shared Folders (Windows Server 2008 R2)
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) (Windows Server 2008)
VSS (Windows Server 2008 R2)

Additional resources

Use the following additional resources for information about backing up or recovering your computers.

For more information about backing up or recovering computers running Active Directory Domain Services, see Administering Active Directory Backup and Recovery.
For more information about backing up computers running Hyper-V, see Planning for Backup.
For more information about how Windows Server Backup stores backups and instructions for how to delete backups, see the blog post Backup Version and Space Management in Windows Server Backup.
For instructions for using the schtasks command to create backups, see the blog post Customizing Windows Server Backup Schedule.