Day 4: Setting Up Disk Image Protection

Welcome to Day 4 of your Magnus Box journey! Today you'll set up Disk Image protection, your best defense when a server dies, a laptop is stolen, or ransomware takes out a whole machine. File backups get your client's documents back. A disk image gets their whole system back.

⏱️ Time to complete: 45 minutes

🎮 Achievement Unlocked: System Shield

▶️ Prefer video? Watch the Day 4 guide to setting up Disk Image protection.

What is Disk Image protection?

A Disk Image backup captures entire disks or partitions, including:

  • The operating system
  • Applications
  • System settings
  • User data
  • Partition information

Disk Image works on Windows and Linux endpoints. It isn't available on macOS.

Before you start

  • The Magnus Box Application is installed and signed in on the endpoint (see Day 2).
  • On Windows, the app uses a Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) snapshot, so it can back up a running system.
  • On Linux, EXT4 and XFS are fully supported, including skipping unused space. To get a consistent snapshot of a running system, either:
    • use LVM2 with enough free space in the volume group for a temporary snapshot, or
    • let the app install its snapshot driver automatically. This needs Linux kernel 5.10 to 6.14 and internet access to github.com and dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org.

If no snapshot is possible, the backup still runs, but the job log shows a warning and the image may be inconsistent if files change during the backup.

Set up a Disk Image backup

Step 1: Create the Protected Item

  1. Open the app on the endpoint, or in the Magnus Box Web Portal go to Users > [user] > Protected Items (the endpoint must be online).
  2. Create a new Protected Item.
  3. Select Disk Image as the type.

Step 2: Select disks and partitions

  • Choose entire drives or specific partitions.
  • Or select all drives and exclude the ones you don't need.
  • On Windows, you can also select drives by drive letter. This is handy in policies, or when the endpoint is offline.

💡 Pro Tip: If you want to be able to boot from the restored image, back up the whole system disk, not just C:. That means the partition table, the System Reserved partition (if there is one), and the EFI partition on UEFI machines.

Step 3: Schedule it and run it

  1. Add a schedule. Weekly is a good starting point for Disk Image (Day 5 covers schedules in detail).
  2. Start the first backup, and check it in Job Logs when it's done.

Recovery options

Magnus Box gives you several ways to get a machine back.

1. Restore to physical hardware (bare metal)

  • Restore disks and partitions directly to physical disks and partitions.
  • To restore a boot drive, start the machine from recovery media first (see option 5).
  • Restoring into a larger partition extends the filesystem automatically. You can't restore into a smaller partition.

2. Restore straight into a new virtual machine

  • Restore a Disk Image of a Windows or Linux machine directly into a new Hyper-V or VMware (vSphere or vCenter) virtual machine.
  • This is a physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration. It's great for getting a client running again while you wait for replacement hardware.
  • You can start it from the Web Portal or the app. For Hyper-V, the app must be running on the Hyper-V host.

3. Restore as virtual disk files

  • VMDK: the disk image's native format. Choose the VMware virtual disk option to get disks VMware can use.
  • VHDX: restore in Hyper-V format, ready to attach to a Hyper-V VM.

4. Granular restore

  • Browse the backup without restoring the whole image.
  • Pick out specific files or folders.
  • Get quick access to critical data.

5. Recovery media

Build bootable recovery media from the app, so you can restore a machine that won't start:

  • WinRE USB or ISO (Windows): a small recovery environment based on Windows Recovery Environment. The USB option needs a USB drive of 2 GB to 32 GB.
  • Windows To Go (Windows): a full Windows boot environment on an external drive of at least 32 GB.
  • Linux ISO (Windows or Linux): a standalone recovery ISO. On Linux, it builds without Docker.

See Recovery Media for step-by-step instructions.

Best practices

  • Start with critical system drives.
  • Include all system partitions.
  • Pair each Disk Image with a File and Folder backup, so single-file restores stay quick. See Best Practices.
  • Test restores regularly. A restore into a VM is a quick way to prove an image boots.
  • Keep recovery media up to date.
  • Document your recovery procedures.

💡 Pro Tip: Create and test your recovery media before you need it. Store it somewhere safe with clear instructions.

Next steps

Tomorrow, we'll automate your backups. Here's what to expect:

  • Backup schedules, including yearly schedules
  • Automatic retries for failed jobs
  • Retention and storage management
  • Resource and speed settings

Common questions

How long does a full system backup take?

The first backup depends on the size of the disks and the upload speed. Later backups are much faster because only changed data is uploaded.

Can I restore to different hardware?

Yes. Disk Image supports bare-metal recovery to different hardware, and you can restore into a Hyper-V or VMware VM. Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and later generally boot fine on different hardware. Two things to expect:

What about open files?

On Windows, the app takes a VSS snapshot, so open files are backed up consistently on a running system. On Linux, it uses an LVM2 snapshot or its snapshot driver (see "Before you start").

Can I back up Linux servers with Disk Image?

Yes. See "Before you start" for the Linux requirements.

Need help?

Our support team is here for you:

🏆 Achievement Summary

  • Portal Master ✓
  • Backup Initiate ✓
  • M365 Guardian ✓
  • System Shield ✓
  • Next achievement: Automation Wizard (Day 5)
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