One backup for the whole system and for any individual file, with the application consistency that SQL Server and Hyper-V require.
The usual choice pits the disk image — restorable to bare metal but opaque — against file backup, granular but unable to bring a system back.
BeBackup offers both modes, selectable disk by disk or partition by partition. The selection screen automatically suggests the recommended mode for each partition, which avoids configuration mistakes on EFI and system-reserved partitions.
A block-by-block copy of the disk or the partition
An EFI partition, a system-reserved partition, a Linux file system, an unformatted volume — anything that is not NTFS.
NTFS partitions read file by file, the rest of the disk as an image
NTFS partitions, including the system partition, and partitions without a drive letter (mount points).
The point of SmartImage shows on the second backup. A classic image has to compare disk blocks; SmartImage reads the NTFS partition with BeBackup's own NTFS engine and carries only the files that actually changed. The system backup stops being a heavy, weekly operation.
A single partition can be backed up with SmartImage, including with no drive letter. The partition table is kept with the disk, including the chaining of logical partitions (EBR).
Copying a database file while it is writing produces a backup you cannot use. BeBackup relies on the Windows VSS components, through a dedicated service.
A consistent backup database by database, through the SQL Server VSS writer. BeBackup's dedicated VSS service restarts that writer when it has failed — a case every SQL administrator has already met at three in the morning.
A backup virtual machine by virtual machine, choosing which files to include. VHD and VHDX virtual disks found in a file backup can also be opened and backed up file by file, instead of being copied wholesale.
Every other VSS writer: Active Directory, the registry, certificate stores, and all the components Windows declares.
When an application does not go through VSS, the agent can arrange its environment: stopping and restarting a service, closing an application, running a script before and after the backup, and importing a third-party program's log straight into the backup report.
The VMs are backed up from the ESXi host, with no agent installed inside each virtual machine.
Restoring follows the same path: a VM can be recreated and its disks restored from the web interface, including from a physical machine. See the restore scenarios
A restore "exactly as it was" is judged on the details you do not see as long as everything is fine. BeBackup's NTFS driver preserves and restores:
To which is added the detection of files held open — registry hives, databases written through a mapped section — that neither the modification date nor the USN journal reports: they are re-read at every backup, without being retransmitted in full for all that.
The best assessment remains a system backup followed by a timed restore, on your own infrastructure.
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