There are occasions when you go through the process of setting up your operating system and applications, customizing them to suit your business needs, and storing important data. This can be time-consuming, and now you want to make sure that if a disaster strikes, you won’t have to start everything over from the beginning.
In other words, if your Windows 11 11 encounters a problem, you aim to have it up and running within minutes without the need to reinstall and configure everything from the ground up.
That is where disk image backup comes into the picture. BDRSuite provides you with the most cost-effective system image backup solution for your machines.
And this article is about it.
What is Windows Disk Image Backup?
Let’s first clarify what we are talking about here.
Windows Disk Image Backup is the process of creating a backup of a system image of a Windows-based machine. This involves creating a complete copy of the entire system, including the operating system, settings, applications, configurations, and all files and folders.
Here’s a use case from my career where Windows Disk Image Backup Software helped me stay productive and on top of my service.
I used to maintain the OT infrastructure for an Italian company that developed and produced an Italian shoe brand. The machines used for laser cutting materials were controlled by workstations running Windows machines with specialized software.
This software contained predefined templates and configurations created at the headquarters in Italy and distributed to branch offices across Europe.
In the event of a machine failure, the only people who could resolve the issues were the IT teams in Italy. This process could take several weeks, which was a significant problem because downtime in the manufacturing industry results in financial losses.
To address this challenge, I implemented a solution. I created a system image of the disk that contained all the settings, applications, and configurations. When a machine experienced an issue, I could quickly restore it using the system image or attach the disk to a machine with the same hardware components.
This approach significantly reduced downtime and helped the company maintain its manufacturing operations more efficiently.
Does this paint the picture of a use case for Windows Disk Image Backup?
BDRSuite and Windows Disk Image Backup
BDRSuite, among many other powerful backup features, also supports Windows Disk Image Backup. It is included in both the free and commercial versions.
Windows and Windows Servers
The journey begins with defining your target. From the target’s perspective, BDRSuite offers support for disk image backup on both Windows Servers and Windows clients, regardless of the version you are running. You have the flexibility to back up the entire system disk or individual partitions, putting you in complete control of your backup choices.
It supports the backup of basic and dynamic disks and disks larger than 2 TB.
Application-aware backup
If you are using application-aware software like Microsoft applications or Oracle, rest assured – BDRSuite is an application-aware backup solution designed to cover your needs.
BDRSuite uses Microsoft VSS to create consistent application backups. It supports Windows Servers running Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, SharePoint, and Active Directory.
It also supports Automatic Transaction Log Truncation to save storage space.
Fully secured
From a security standpoint, your backup copies are encrypted using end-to-end encryption and the robust AES 256-bit encryption algorithm. This level of security ensures your data is exceptionally safe.
Wait, I am still not done…
Near Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
DRSuite offers an RPO of 15 minutes for Windows Servers and desktops/laptops, providing near-continuous data protection. BDRSuite’s proprietary Changed Block Tracking driver ensures fast, efficient incremental backups.
You can schedule backups hourly, daily, or weekly, and configure additional full backups daily, weekly, or monthly, while synthetic full backups save storage space. Tailor your data protection with BDRSuite.
Flexible Retention Policies
BDRSuite’s retention feature offers control over backup history by managing recovery points. It includes Basic and GFS Retention Policies for versatile data retention based on your specific needs. You can automate restore point creation on weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly schedules.
Automated Verification is a crucial step for disaster recovery, involving a 3-tier process (Boot test, Mount test, Data Integrity test) to ensure data integrity, with admin-received machine screenshots.
Automated Verification
Have you heard the saying: “Backups are only reliable if you’ve tried to restore them before a failure?” BDRSuite Windows Disk Image Backup supports backup verification in an automated way.
The verification process consists of three steps, boot test, mount test, and data integrity test. Once the test is finalized, BDRSuite will automatically take a screenshot, and send it to the admin via email.
Flexible Storage Options
You can even migrate your machine from a physical to a virtual environment. BDRSuite supports both P2V (Physical to Virtual) and V2V (Virtual to Virtual) conversions.
When you decide on the target and configure it, one of the questions is where you can back it up. You have several options, including on-premises storage such as local drives, NAS, and SAN, as well as offsite storage.
Offsite location is also known as cloud. BDRSuite Disk Image Backup supports Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and S3-compatible storage options such as Wasabi, Minio, and others. If you don’t have a private or public cloud, you can go with BDRSuite’s own cloud solution.
What about recovery options?
Bare-Metal Recovery
The Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) feature in BDRSuite enables the complete recovery of physical Windows Servers, Desktops, and Laptops from the ground up. It restores the system to its pre-disaster or pre-crash state, including the operating system and applications, using the BDRSuite Recovery CD.
File-Level Recovery
BDRSuite simplifies data recovery by allowing you to retrieve files and folders directly from backups, eliminating the need to restore the entire Windows machine. With BDRSuite, you can perform granular recovery of specific files and folders from image-based backups, ensuring a precise data retrieval process. It provides the flexibility to restore files and folders to their original location or to different locations, depending on your specific recovery needs. Moreover, BDRSuite retains file permissions during the recovery process, ensuring that the integrity of your data is maintained.
Instant Recovery
BDRSuite offers the ability to instantly boot an entire physical machine as a virtual machine on VMware, Hyper-V, or KVM hypervisors, allowing you to achieve a rapid recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 15 minutes, ensuring uninterrupted business continuity.
Additionally, it facilitates physical-to-virtual (P2V) platform migration, streamlining the transition of your systems.
Furthermore, BDRSuite’s Disk Mount recovery option enables you to virtually mount the disks of a backed-up Windows machine on your local server within seconds, providing quick and efficient access to your data.
Recovery of Microsoft Applications
You can easily recover individual application objects from Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Active Directory using BDRSuite. You have the flexibility to choose any restore point and recover specific items within minutes.
This feature is supported for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, and Active Directory. With BDRSuite, you can mount the backup data, browse, and directly restore application items from the Windows disk image backup. Whether your Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, or Active Directory Server is running on a physical or virtual Windows platform, you can restore specific application items with ease.
Performing Windows Disk Image Backup Using BDRSuite
I have already written an article that explains how to perform a disk image backup using BDRSuite. It includes all the details, followed by textual and screenshot instructions.
You can read it here Windows Backup using BDRSuite: Step by step configuration.
There’s more to explore, but I’ll save that for the next review articles where we’ll delve deeper into Windows and Windows Servers.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them, and don’t hesitate to send me a message.
