Supported file systems

A protection agent can back up any file system that is accessible from the operating system where the agent is installed. For example, Agent for Windows can back up and recover an ext4 file system if the corresponding driver is installed in Windows.

The following table summarizes the file systems that can be backed up and recovered. The limitations apply to both the agents and bootable media.

File system Supported by Limitations
Agents WinPE bootable media Linux-based bootable media Mac bootable media
FAT16/32 All agents + + +   No limitations
NTFS + + +
ext2/ext3/ext4 + + -
HFS+ Agent for Mac - - +
APFS - - +  
  • Supported starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13
  • Disk configuration should be re-created manually when recovering to a non-original machine or bare metal.
JFS Agent for Linux - + -  
  • Files cannot be excluded from a disk backup
  • Fast incremental/ differential backup cannot be enabled
ReiserFS3 - + -
ReiserFS4 - + -
  • Files cannot be excluded from a disk backup
  • Fast incremental/ differential backup cannot be enabled
  • Volumes cannot be resized during a recovery
ReFS All agents + + +
XFS + + +
  • Files cannot be excluded from a disk backup
  • Fast incremental/ differential backup cannot be enabled
  • Volumes cannot be resized during a recovery

  • Recovering files from a backup stored on a tape is not supported
Linux swap Agent for Linux - + -   No limitations
exFAT All agents

 

+

 

+

Bootable media cannot be used for recovery if the backup is stored on exFAT

 

+

  
  • Only disk/volume backup is supported
  • Files cannot be excluded from a backup
  • Individual files cannot be recovered from a backup

The software automatically switches to the sector-by-sector mode when backing up drives with unrecognized or unsupported file systems. A sector-by-sector backup is possible for any file system that:

  • is block-based
  • spans a single disk
  • has a standard MBR/GPT partitioning scheme

If the file system does not meet these requirements, the backup fails.

Data Deduplication

In Windows Server 2012 and later, you can enable the Data Deduplication feature for an NTFS volume. Data Deduplication reduces the used space on the volume by storing duplicate fragments of the volume's files only once.

You can back up and recover a data deduplication–enabled volume at a disk level, without limitations. File-level backup is supported, except when using Acronis VSS Provider. To recover files from a disk backup, either run a virtual machine from your backup, or mount the backup on a machine running Windows Server 2012 or later, and then copy the files from the mounted volume.

The Data Deduplication feature of Windows Server is unrelated to the Acronis Backup Deduplication feature.