Dedicated Full Machine Backup

[UncleMiles]

So I have a dedicated "full machine", Windows 2008 R2. I'm looking for recommendations to back up the server.

I intend to host a website on it, not games. So I'm not really looking for ways to backup individual files. I'm really looking for a "bare-metal" recovery solution.

I'm aware of several options for doing this. They all involve backing up the entire disk volumes to an off-site (or off-server) solution.

The problem is doing the restore after a hard drive failure/replacement (or entire machine replacement). All the options I'm aware of require booting the machine from a CD (or ISO) and having access to the console of the machine. As far as I know NFO doesn't really provide access to this, so I'm looking for another solution.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Miles

[Edge100x]

What OS are you using on the machine?

If you're using Linux, the easiest and best way would be to use an rsync-based backup solution. This can be done online and does not require a special boot process.

[UncleMiles]

Thanks for the reply.

The OS is Windows 2008 R2. And the reason for wanting a full bare-metal restore capability is due to the complexity of configuration and various software that's installed.

Starting from a clean install of the OS, with all the files restored, the configuration is 4-8 hours to get everything working on the server from scratch. Just a huge pain, not to mention that's all additional downtime until it's up and going again.