Carbonite Support > FAQ: What Is A Bare Metal Imag...

FAQ: What Is A Bare Metal Image Backup?

Summary:

What Is A Bare Metal Image Backup?

This article applies to:

Carbonite Plans Products Platforms
Power and Ultimate (Not sure?) Carbonite Safe Server Backup (Not sure?) Windows

Solution:

Like Carbonite Safe, Carbonite Safe Server Backup’s (CSSB) File System backup copies the files on your computer and does not include things like your operating system, user accounts, programs, and settings. With CSSB, you can also add a System State backup to back up the other components of your operating system, but System State has a few drawbacks:

  1. A System State backup is designed to enable a restore to the same or very similar hardware.
  2. A System State backup requires a system set up with the right version of Windows—which can be a long and involved process.

Carbonite Safe Server Backup’s Bare Metal Image (BMI) backs up all the components needed to allow you to restore it to another computer with ease. With BMI, you can back up and restore the entire system (or individual disks). The BMI backup will include all data on any disk selected including the operating system, settings, programs, files, and folders.

At restore time, you can restore in a “bare metal” state. You can restore to a machine that doesn’t have any pre-installed software or even an operating system. BMI also supports file-level restores that allow you to restore a single file or folder instead of the whole computer. This is useful any time you need to restore some data but do not need to recover the entire system.

Disaster Recovery Overview

This is an overview of the steps required to fully recover a system using Carbonite Safe, Carbonite Safe Server Backup File System + System State, and Carbonite Safe Server Backup Bare Metal Image.

Carbonite Safe Carbonite Safe Server Backup
File System + System State		 Carbonite Safe Server Backup
Bare Metal Image
  1. Get a new computer or server
  2. Install Windows
  3. Add user accounts
  4. Install drivers for basic functionality, including network connections
  5. Connect to the network
  6. Install Windows updates
  7. Install Carbonite Safe
  8. Start Carbonite Restore
  9. Install Programs
  10. Import files into the correct programs

Downtime: Several days or more
  1. Get new computer or server
  2. Install Windows
  3. Install drivers for basic functionality, including network connections
  4. Connect to network
  5. Install Windows updates
  6. Install Carbonite Safe Server Backup
  7. Restore File System
  8. Restore System State
  9. Restart when complete

Downtime: Multiple days
  1. Get a new computer or server
  2. Connect drive with local BMI backup
    • Can be restored from the cloud
  3. Create Recovery Media (if needed)
  4. Boot the computer using the Recovery Media.
  5. Use the Recovery Wizard to start the BMI restore
  6. Restart

Downtime: Hours

As you can see, A BMI restore can dramatically reduce downtime. Proper preparation, such as safe local backups and pre-making your Recovery Media, will reduce downtime even more.

Carbonite Safe Server Backup is available with Carbonite Safe Power and Ultimate plans. For more information on all our available plans, see Carbonite Plans and Features.

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