What is bare metal backup? How to perform Windows Server 2019 bare metal backup and recovery? Read this article to get 3 methods to create bare metal backup on Windows Server and easily restore it when accidents happen.
Bare Metal Backup (BMB) is a process of backing up all the critical volumes, including the system partition, boot partition, and other partitions (if you have applications installed elsewhere besides the boot partition) to ensure all the applications are in a consistent state. It is highly useful for migrations and disaster recovery. Bare Metal backups support Full and Incremental backups. Differential backups are not supported.
Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) is a technology that allows you to recover a PC or Server without the need for previously installed software and operating system. The "bare metal" here refers to a completely blank hard drive. Bare metal recovery is also very safe. It removes all existing partitions on the system disk and recreates all partitions, before restoring software onto the PC.
No one wants to suffer a catastrophic server failure, but if this happens, usually the only solution is bare metal recovery. But the prerequisite for bare metal recovery is that you have a bare metal backup. Next, I will introduce three methods for creating Windows Server 2019 bare metal backups.
You can rely on third-party professional and easy-to-use server backup and restore software like AOMEI Backupper Server to perform bare metal backup for Windows Server 2019 effortlessly.
Also, Windows Server 2019 provides two helpful utilities to create bare metal backup and recovery, namely Wbadmin and Windows Server Backup (WSB). While the Wbadmin command line offers more flexible backup settings, it is not user-friendly for novices or users who are not familiar with the command line.
To perform Windows Server 2019 bare metal backup and recovery as simply as possible, I recommend to you the best Windows server backup software - AOMEI Backupper Server. It is designed for Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025 (including R2) and Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit). And has more flexible backup settings in the following.
Download this software and create bare metal backup and recovery for the server!
Note the free trial version is only available within 30 days. It's suggested to upgrade sever trial version if you do not only want to create a bare metal backup.
Let's take the system state backup in Server 2019 as an example. If necessary, connect the external storage to your computer in advance.
Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Backupper Server. Click Backup and then System Backup.
🌟System Backup has backed up operating system files and their related partitions. You can use file backup to back up other important user data on "non-critical volumes."
Step 2. The system drive and its related partitions are selected by default. Now, you need to select the destination path to store the backups. You can create Windows Server backup to external drives, NAS, network share, cloud drive, CD/DVD, flash drives, and so on.
Step 3. Click Schedule Backup beneath to set a backup mode, you can choose daily, weekly, monthly, event triggers, and USB plug-in. The last one is recommended if your target drive is a USB device and you don't want to always keep it connected.
Step 4. (Optional) You can click “Backup Scheme” to set cleanup methods, you have 3 options, including By quality, By time, By daily/weekly/monthly.
By default, the backup method for a scheduled task is Incremental Backup, which backs up only changed files since the last backup, whether it's full backup or incremental backup. Given this rule, ensuring backup integrity and recovery becomes more demanding. It is recommended to try differential backup.
Step 5. Click Start Backup to decide whether to back it up now or later.
When your Server 2019 fails, you can restore it using the previously created backup by navigating to "Restore"> "Select Task/Select Image File". If your server fails to boot, you can boot from the Server 2019 bootable USB, and then perform system recovery under Windows PE.
Also, the created system image can be used on unlimited PCs or servers as long as you activate the image deployment software in the technician or techplus edition of AOMEI Backupper. With it, you are able to deploy system image to multiple computers simultaneously over the network. You can enable dissimilar hardware features and preset IP addresses in advance, so you can boot all the client computers successfully and be sure it's connected to a network.
Although the following two methods can perform bare metal backup and recovery for Windows Server 2019, they have some limitations. For example, the Wbadmin command line is difficult for technical novices, and you can't even mistype a single parameter. If you use WSB, the schedule setting is limited to once or day or more than once a day.
WBAdmin enables you to back up and restore your operating system, volumes, files, folders, and applications from a command prompt. You must run WBAdmin from an elevated command prompt by right-clicking on the command prompt and selecting Run as administrator.
In Windows Server 2019, the WBAdmin command line utility has a few differences. The subcommands are listed here:
To create a bare metal backup for Windows Server 2019, please input the following command and press “Enter”:
☞ Wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:e: -allcritical -vssfull -quiet
Note✍:
✿ -allcritical: Creates a backup that includes all critical volumes.
✿ -vssfull: run a full backup using Volume Shadow Copy service (VSS).
✿ -quiet: run the command with no prompts to the user.
To perform WBAdmin start backup bare metal recovery, you can use WBAdmin start recovery command line. Just type the following commands and hit Enter:
Windows Server Backup (WSB) is the built-in backup and recovery tool for Windows Server environments. In Windows Server Backup, you can configure it to perform a full or incremental backup when setting up a scheduled backup. How to create a bare metal backup in Windows Server 2019 via WSB? The steps are as follows:
Step 1. Click Start in the lower-left corner of the computer. Type Server Manager in the search box and then open it.
Step 2. Click Add Roles and Features under the Manage tab. Then press Next.
Step 3. Under Select installation type, choose “Role-based or feature based installation” and click Next.
Step 4. Select the destination server. Then press Next.
Step 5. Under Select server roles click Next.
Step 6. Select the “Windows Server Backup” feature from the list, and then click “Next”.
Step 7. Confirm the installation selections. Then click Install to install this tool on the destination computer.
Step 1. To create a backup, launch the Server Manager, select “Tools” and then “Windows Server Backup”.
Step 2. To have an automatic backup on a schedule configured, select Backup Schedule.
Step 3. This will open up the backup schedule wizard. On the getting started window, click on Next.
Step 4. In the backup configuration window, you will have to select a backup configuration type. Select “Full server” to create a bare metal backup and click “Next”.
✍Tips:
◑ Full server (recommended): This will back up all server data, applications, and system state.
◑ Custom: This Will allow you to define your backup need by selecting certain volumes or files to be backed up.
Step 5. In the “Specify Backup Time” window, you can decide to select “Once a day” and select your desired time or select the second option “More than once a day backup”.
Step 6. Choose a destination for storing the backup – that can be other volumes on the server, a network folder path or even an external HDD attached to the server.
Step 7. Backup schedule is successfully configured click on Close.
Note✍: Make sure you have given the same or bigger storage space on the physical server you gonna perform the restore.
Step 1. Connect the Drive that contains backup files to the server.
Step 2. Boot from the “server 2019 media” and choose “Repair your computer” option.
Step 3. Click on “Troubleshoot” -> “Advanced options” -> “System Image Recovery”
Step 4. Your server will restart automatically after the Windows Server 2019 OS image is restored.
#1. What is bare metal backup in Windows Server?
A bare metal backup in Windows Server refers to a complete backup of the operating system, system settings, installed applications, and all data required to restore the entire system to a new or completely blank (bare metal) machine. This means that in the event of a system failure, such as a hardware crash, disk corruption, or ransomware attack, you can recover the server to the exact state it was in at the time of backup, even on different hardware (with some limitations).
#2. What is the difference between system state and bare metal backup?
For Windows Server Backup bare metal vs system state, while both System State Backup and Bare Metal Backup are used for recovery purposes, they serve different scopes of restoration:
#3. What data will be recovered by using bare metal restore in default mode?
When performing a Bare Metal Recovery on Windows Server 2019 in default mode, these files are typically restored: operating system, system settings, boot files & boot configuration data (BCD), system reserved partition, system volume (usually C:), system state components, and other optional volumes.
But it should be noted that in default mode, the bare metal restore focuses on core system volumes only. If additional drives were not included in the backup set, they won't be recovered unless a full volume backup was made.
This page provides three ways to create a Windows Server 2019 bare metal backup. Compared with the third-party software AOMEI Backupper, the first two built-in tools are a bit more difficult. Considering simplicity and efficiency, the third one will be a better choice for performing bare metal backup and recovery.
As the best backup tool for Windows Servers, it provides you with more powerful functions. It enables you to migrate server to new hardware easily, to do System/Disk/Partition Clone and File Sync to transfer and protect your data. Why not give it a try right now?