At Duplicati, our goal is to provide powerful, flexible, and secure backup solutions that meet the evolving needs of our users. We are excited to highlight one of our most highly anticipated features: Full-Disk Backup and Restore.

Designed for environments where simply backing up files and folders isn't enough, this feature allows you to capture an entire drive - including the operating system, applications, and partition structure - so you can recover your complete system from bare metal or restore entire drives efficiently.

Here is an overview of what the full-disk backup and restore feature brings to the table, how it works, and what you need to know to get started.

What is Full-Disk Backup?

Unlike traditional file-level backups that target specific directories, full-disk backup reads the disk at the sector level. This means it captures the entire disk structure, including the MBR/GPT partition tables. Whether you suffer a catastrophic drive failure, ransomware attack, or simply need to migrate a system to new hardware, full-disk backup ensures you have an exact 1:1 snapshot of the drive as it was during the backup.

Platform Support and Evolution

When first introduced, full-disk backup was provided as an initial release exclusively for Windows (using direct disk access). Since then, the feature has rapidly evolved to support the larger Duplicati ecosystem:

• Windows: Full-disk backup reads the disk directly. Note that VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) support for full-disk imaging is on the roadmap to allow even better handling of in-use operating system drives.

  
  

• macOS & Linux: Basic full-disk backup and restore capabilities have also been extended to include macOS and Linux environments, allowing cross-platform users to protect their entire partition tables and physical volumes.

  
  

Prerequisites and How It Works

Because full-disk operations interact with your machine at the lowest levels, there are a few important requirements to keep in mind:

• Administrative Privileges Required: To access the raw disk directly for backups, Duplicati must be run with administrative (or root) privileges.

  
  

• Restore Conditions: Full-disk restore operations also require administrative privileges. Furthermore, to safely overwrite a drive with the restored data, the target disk must be unmounted and cannot be write-protected.

  
  

Getting Started

If you are a system administrator, MSP, or power user looking to safeguard entire machines without dealing with third-party disk-imaging tools, Duplicati’s full-disk backup is ready for you.

To configure a full-disk backup, start by running Duplicati with the necessary administrative permissions, and select the full-disk source in the UI or CLI.

For further technical details, advanced command-line arguments, and licensing information, be sure to check out the official Full-Disk Backup and Restore Documentation.