Image Plug-in

To back up Windows volumes as images, install the Image Plug-in with the 64-bit Windows Agent. Unlike the Windows Agent, which enumerates and backs up individual files and folders during a backup, the Image Plug-in sequentially backs up all blocks on a volume.

Because backups with the Image Plug-in require significantly less processing than backups with the Windows Agent, the time required for a backup can be significantly reduced. To back up an entire server, create an Image job instead of a Local System job. We recommend Image backup jobs over Local System backup jobs when backing up larger number of files on slow disks.

After the first “seed” backup of a volume, in which all data from the volume is sent to the vault, the Image Plug-in uses Changed Block Tracking to determine which blocks have changed. In subsequent Image backups, the plug-in only reads and backs up changed blocks to the vault.

When creating an Image backup job, you can select specific volumes to back up, or create a Bare Metal Restore (BMR) job that backs up all volumes, partitions, and data required for restoring a system to new hardware. You can also back up data on Windows Storage Spaces. See Add a Windows Image backup job.

Note: The Image Plug-in is not supported with volumes created from Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) storage pools.

Note: The Image Plug-in does not back up or restore the configuration of Windows Storage Spaces. In a disaster recovery, you can configure storage spaces manually, and then restore volumes to the storage spaces.

Note: The Image Plug-in is not supported on servers where Windows Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) is enabled.

You can restore entire volumes and specific files and folders from Image backups. See Restore Windows volumes from an Image backup and Restore files and folders from an Image backup. You can also use the System Restore application to restore systems from Image Plug-in BMR backups to new hardware. For more information, see the System Restore User Guide.

Beginning in version 7.5, the Image Plug-in can back up volumes with SQL Server database files. This option creates application-consistent database backups, so that separate SQL Server Plug-in jobs are not required. You can then mount these safesets, and restore database files from the backups. See Add a Windows Image backup job and Restore SQL Server databases.

You can use the Image Plug-in only on supported 64-bit Windows operating systems with the NTFS file system. The Image Plug-in is not supported with ReFS, FAT or FAT32 file systems (except for volumes that are required to start the system). To back up a system with the ReFS, FAT or FAT32 file system, use a Windows Agent Local System job. The Image Plug-in supports both UEFI and BIOS, and MBR and GPT disks. For a complete list of supported platforms, see the Windows Agent release notes. Release notes for current product versions are available here.