What kind of backup is BigMind DR — image or file?

Both. We do block-level full-system images (the disaster recovery layer) AND file-level backup with versioning (the file backup layer). One agent, both jobs.

Can I restore to different hardware than the source?

Yes. Three tiers — same hardware (instant), different hardware with offline DISM driver injection via USB Recovery, and Cloud Desktop with bastion-based driver injection (universal). Drivers harvested from a community library.

What's "app-consistent" mean and why does it matter?

SQL, Exchange, AD, Hyper-V have writers that need to flush state to disk before backup, otherwise you get a corrupt-on-restore database. We coordinate VSS Writers on every backup. Crash-consistent restore is a degraded fallback — useful for desktops, dangerous for databases.

How fast is recovery?

Depends on which path you pick. Browse Files is instant for single files. A whole machine comes back in ~5 minutes if you keep an Always-Ready warm standby; a cold boot via Instant Recovery or Cloud Desktop takes ~30–60 min; USB recovery is ~2–3 hours to bare metal on different hardware. Always-Ready is the upgrade that turns the cold rebuild into ~5 minutes.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery, rebuilt for SMBs.

All included — no add-ons, no appliance, no surprises on recovery day.

Block-level imaging with app-consistent (VSS) backups
Five recovery paths — from one file to a whole machine
Cross-hardware restore — boot on different hardware
Ransomware Canary — deterministic, works from day one
Boot verification — proof your backup actually boots

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Recovery paths

all included

~0 min

Whole machine

with Always-Ready

Appliances required

no hardware to buy

Cross-hardware tiers

same / USB / Cloud

Recovery Methods

When disaster strikes, pick the fastest path.

Most products give one way to restore. We give five — a file instantly, a whole machine in ~5 min with Always-Ready or ~30–60 min cold, bare-metal in ~2–3 hours.

~5 min · warm standby

Always-Ready VM

A pre-launched, RDP-ready AWS VM that mirrors your last backup. The fast full-machine path.

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~30–60 min cold (→ ~5 min with Always-Ready)

Instant Recovery

Cold-boot any image as a raw EBS volume. Add Always-Ready to turn the cold rebuild into ~5 minutes.

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~30–60 min cold · $0.20–$0.40/hr

Cloud Desktop

Boot any backup as a metered Windows VM — pay only while it runs. (→ ~5 min with Always-Ready.)

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~2–3 hours · bare-metal

USB / Full System Restore

Cross-hardware bare-metal restore from a USB. No cloud required, air-gap-compatible.

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instant · file-level

Browse Files

Drill into any image and pull a single file in seconds. No full restore needed.

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Explore Recovery Methods

Backup Engine

Block-level. App-consistent. Deduped.

Block-Level Imaging

VSS snapshot + NTFS bitmap + dedup. Capture only what changed.

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App-Consistent VSS

Coordinated VSS Writers for SQL, Exchange, AD, Hyper-V.

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Multi-Volume

Back up C: + D: + system reserved in one bootable image.

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Encryption AES-256

Per-tenant keys. Zero-knowledge mode available.

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Cross-Hardware

Boots on the hardware you have today.

Your replacement server isn't identical. Different chipset. Different storage controller. Different network card. Most backup products give you a recovery image that won't boot. We ship three tiers: same-hardware (instant), different-hardware with offline DISM driver injection (USB Recovery), and Cloud Desktop driver injection from our bastion (universal). Driver harvest library included.

Same-hardware (instant), USB cross-hardware (offline DISM), and Cloud Desktop (universal)
Driver harvest library included — no per-restore licensing
Acronis Universal Restore costs extra. Veeam doesn't have it.

Cross-hardware restore

Source

Dell R740

Intel Xeon · MegaRAID · Broadcom NIC

Target

HPE DL380

Different CPU · Different RAID · Different NIC → Boots.

Verification

We boot your backups. So recovery day isn't a surprise.

We don't trust “it backed up successfully.” We verify the image actually boots. Hyper-V on Plus / Pro, EC2 in cloud — capture a screenshot, log the result, surface in your dashboard.

Frequency

Plus = monthly · Pro = every image · Cloud = quarterly to weekly.

Proof

Actual boot screenshot stored as evidence — not just a "success" flag.

On failure

Alert surfaces, image flagged, prevents silent recovery-day failure.

Boot Verification

Ransomware Defense

We catch ransomware mid-attack. Before it reaches the backup.

Ransomware encrypts over 30–120 minutes. Hourly backups can capture encrypted data and overwrite the clean version. Our canary detects tamper events before that happens, freezes the backup chain, and protects the last clean image.

Learn about Ransomware Canary

Storage & Retention

Local. Cloud. Both.

Local-Only Mode

Chunks stay on the customer's disk or NAS. Cloud holds metadata only. Privacy-first; air-gap-compatible.

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Hybrid (Local + Cloud)

Local for fast recovery, cloud for offsite copy. The default for Cloud DR tiers.

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4-Track Retention

Daily / weekly / monthly / yearly slot-based GFS pipeline. Pinned images never expire.

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Reliability

Backups that survive bad networks.

Captive portal detection. Bandwidth limiter. Retry classification. Exponential backoff. We don't fail a backup because the office Wi-Fi flapped or someone walked behind a microwave.

Stall watchdog detects silently-hung backups and recovers them automatically. No 24-hour “in progress” jobs that turn out to be dead.

Network Resilience

Recovery Plans — Coming Q3 2026 to Resilience Pro

Restore in the right order. Drill it before you need it.

Today, restoring 25 machines after a major incident is chaotic — apps fail because their dependencies aren't up yet. Resilience Pro's Recovery Plans (coming Q3 2026) tag every machine with a priority group — Identity → Databases → Applications → Files → Endpoints — then orchestrate the restore in the right order with verification gates between each group. Drill Mode for quarterly testing without production impact.

See pricing

Deep Dive

Every DR feature, one click away.

Recovery paths

Always-Ready VM

Warm AWS VM, RDP-ready in ~5 min

Instant Recovery

Cold-boot any image as EBS in ~30–60 min (→ ~5 min with Always-Ready)

Cloud Desktop

Boot any backup as a Windows VM in ~30–60 min (→ ~5 min with Always-Ready)

USB Recovery

Cross-hardware bare-metal restore in ~2–3 hours

Browse Files

Drill into any image, grab one file. Instant.

Engine & verification

Block-Level Imaging

VSS snapshot + NTFS bitmap + dedup

App-Consistent VSS

Coordinated writers for SQL, Exchange, AD, Hyper-V

Encryption (AES-256)

Per-tenant keys, zero-knowledge mode available

Boot Verification

We boot your backups and prove they restore

Resilience & UI

Recovery Shield UI

Fortress + Escape views. Posture and recovery paired.

Network Resilience

Captive portal, retry, stall watchdog

Storage & compliance

Local-Only Mode

Chunks on your disk or NAS. Air-gap-compatible.

4-Track Retention

Daily / weekly / monthly / yearly GFS pipeline

WORM Immutability

SEC 17a-4 / HIPAA / SOC 2 audit-ready

Continental Region

Multi-region replication for residency and resilience

Just want free local DR?

BigMind DR Free — disaster recovery for your team. $0. Forever.

Free local DR for up to 5 users. Block-level imaging + canary + USB recovery + browse. No credit card.

Download BigMind DR Free

Ready to make recovery day boring?

Start in 5 minutes. 14-day free trial. Works on Windows, macOS, Linux.

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