Windows Server 2022 Backup and Bare Metal Recovery Complete Guide

What Are Bare Metal Backup and Recovery?

Bare metal backup and bare metal recovery (BMR) are protection feature of Windows Server Backup. In general, the bare metal backup includes  the OS, settings, applications, and other basic configurations that all computers need.

With it, you can quickly and safely restore your operating system to a different computer, even with different make, model, and configuration. And it also works for a bare metal machine. This process is a bare metal recovery, which restore your computer to previous state with a secure boot.

Why Perform Windows Server 2022 Backup Bare Metal Recovery?

This article summarizes three reasons why you should do a bare metal backup restore of Windows Server 2022.

• Migrate system to new hardware with secure boot: The windows server backup bare metal recovery helps you restore the basic system and settings directly on another computer, even with different harware, and boot from it successfully. 
• Save Time and Effort: The bare-metal backup take care of the bare metal recovery process, so you don't need to install drivers required to start a new hardware during the process and everything is on the new hardware afterward. No Windows and program reinstallation. 
• Remove Virus or Malware: If your Windows Server 2022 system is infected with a virus or ransomware, using bare metal recovery can also help you get rid of the source of the infection and potential threats.

How to Perform Windows Server 2022 Backup Bare Metal Recovery

Next, this article will introduce you to how to perform Windows Server 2022 backup bare metal recovery with built-in tool - Windows Server Backup and third-party tool. Before start, you need to prepare the following items:

• First and foremost, you need to create a bare-metal backup of Windows Server 2022.
• Second, you need a Windows Server 2022 recovery disk or installation disk to access the Windows recovery environment and perform bare metal restore.
• Third, make sure that the target hard disk to receive the bare metal recovery has enough disk space. The target hard disk needs to be the same size or larger than the source disk.

Then, select one of the following methods and start to perform Windows Server backup bare metal recovery. Note the restore process requires a bare metal backup created by corresponding software. 

>> If your backup image is created by Windows Server Backup, please use the first bare metal recovery method. Please remember to select Bare metal recovery in the Select Items for backup page.

>> If your backup image is created by AOMEI Backupper Server, please scroll down to the second one. Click here to learn steps.

Way 1: Perform Windows Server 2022 Backup Bare Metal Recovery using Built-in Tool

Here you will use Windows Server Backup to perform Windows Server 2022 bare metal recovery to another computer. Please follow the graphic tutorial carefully.

Step 1. Insert the Windows Server installation disk or recovery disk to boot the target machine. And select the language and other preferences then click Next.

Step 2. Click Repair your computer. 

Step 3. Then, select the operating system that you want to repair, here is Windows Server 2022, and click Next.
Step 4. Select System Image Recovery in the Advanced options window.

Note:  You can select Command Prompt to perform Wbadmin bare metal recovery if you prefer to use the command line.

Step 5. Select the bare metal backup image to be restored and click Next. If the image is saved on an external hard drive, you should connect the external drive to your Windows Server first.

Step 6. Confirm the backup and click Finish to start the bare metal recovery. It may take a while and it depends on how much data to be restored. Please wait patiently.

The built-in tool can help you perform Windows Server 2022 backup bare-metal recovery, but for green hands and users who are not familiar with this process, this method might be a little bit complicated and it is easy to make a mistake at one of the steps. Besides, if your target disk capacity is smaller than the source disk, your bare metal recovery may fail.

Therefore, we recommend you to choose a more professional and stable third-party software to help you perform Windows Server 2022 backup bare-metal recovery. And we'll introduce you one such software. Please continue to read below.

Way 2: Perform Windows Server 2022 Backup Bare Metal Recovery Easily using Third-party Tool👍 

AOMEI Backupper Server is an excellent backup and restore software, which supports creating a full system or disk backup for all the server systems and Windows PCs, and help you restore them in different situations with a secure boot. 

• choose the way to restore your server computer, from Windows or recovery environment. Of course, if your computer fails to boot, you can only restore system in the recovery enviroment.
• create a bootable rescue media beforehand to prevent your computer can't boot. So you still can boot it even if it's not bootable.
• restore system image to a smaller disk. 
• restore system from MBR to GPT disk directly, and vice versa. 
• restore the entire system, settings, drivers and everything personalized easily to a computer with different hardware.
• In advanced editions, such as, AOMEI Backupper Technician Plus, you can even restore system to multiple computers simultaneously with dissimilar hardware.  

So you can perform the bare metal recovery based on your needs as much as possible and avoid the problem of system restore failed due to various reasons, such as, not enough space, boot mode, incompatible drivers, etc.

Please download and install AOMEI Backupper Server on Windows Server 2022 and backup Windows Server 2022 to USB drive or other devices. If the computer you want to perform bare metal restore is not bootable, please create a bootable media as well.  T

Then, you can follow the steps below to easily perform Windows Server 2022 backup bare-metal recovery.

Step 1. Connect the backup drive containing system image the bootable disk into target computer. Restart your computer, press a specific key on the lower right corner repeatedly to access BIOS, it's usually F2, esc, F11, etc, set the boot drive as first option and boot from it. 

Step 2. Wait until it loads, and AOMEI Backupper interface will pop out automatically. Click Restore > Select Image File to select backup image created by it.

Step 3. In the Image Information page, select Restore this system backup and then tick Restore system to other location at the bottom.

Step 4. Choose the destination location to receive the Windows Server 2022 bare metal recovery, and then click Next.

Step 5. The Universal Restore option will be ticked by default when it detects the computer you are restoring has different hardware. Click Start Restore to start performing Windows Server 2022 backup bare-metal recovery.

Supplement: Best Enterprise Backup and Recovery Solution🔥

If you are an enterprise user who has multiple server devices that need to be backed up, try the best backup software for businesses of all sizes, AOMEI Cyber Backup.

• It enables you to create system/disk/partition backup for a bunch of Windows PCs and Servers from one central console.
• You can schedule a backup task to run daily/weekly/monthly using the full/incremental/differential backup method.
• You are allowed to restore the backup image to the same computer or different computer.
• If your backup has multiple versions, you can choose to restore from any point you want.

Download this powerful enterprise backup software now!

To make backups for client computers, just log in AOMEI Cyber Backup, and add the Windows device that you want to backup. Then click Backup Task on the left menu bar and select Backup Task > Create New Task.

To restore data on client computers, you need to click Backup Task on the left menu bar and click the three dots icon on the task you want to restore. Then select Restore from the drop-down menu.

Note: AOMEI Cyber Backup can not only help you backup physical machines but also virtual machines. It enables you to backup Hyper-V and VMware easily.

Summary

Performing Windows Server 2022 backup bare metal recovery helps you to protect server computer effectively, especially when your computer fails but you don't have a backup image, or it's a bare metal machine. Both Windows Server Backup and AOMEI Backupper Server do you a big favor if you want to perform bare metal restore. 

Note you can only perform bare metal recovery with the same software you create a abre metal backup, othewise the restore process will fail. By comparison, using AOMEI Backupper to perform a restore process will be much easier, thanks to its intutive graphic user interface and strong restore features. Restore system to multiple computers are supported.