How do you use Synology Active Backup? After backing up the whole system and configuring it for the whole family, the system crashed for half an hour and the whole system was restored

last month, my wife's Lenovo Xiaoxin that I've used for four years had a blue screen looping right after turning on and couldn't enter the desktop. Files can't be lost—her desktop document photos have all gone through file history and are saved to the NAS. I previously wrote about backing up computer files to NAS. But what does a system failure mean? Reinstalling Windows 11, installing drivers, installing Office, migrating WeChat chat history, and reconfiguring a bunch of software one by one—it took me a whole day to get the machine back to its original state.

comparison is quite striking: my own desktop, last year I replaced the mechanical drive with an SSD. From inserting a USB drive to loading into the desktop, it took 47 minutes—software, configuration, and desktop icons were all missing. The difference lies in my phone equipped with Synology's Active Backup for whole-system backup. These two incidents happened side by side, so I immediately decided to equip the whole family with computers.

first distinguish: file backup saves files, whole system backup saves system

Many people think backup is just backup, but there's actually a layer of difference. File backup (Mac Time Machine, Windows File History, Synology Drive Sync) saves the "file itself": deleting documents can restore old versions, and losing photos can be recovered. But when the system crashes, the hard drive is physically broken, or when you replace the drive, a little file backup can't help—it doesn't record your system, drivers, registry, or software installation status.

whole-system backup is a different matter: it slaps down the entire system drive, and after it crashes, the whole system is reverted back, and when you boot up, it's still the familiar desktop. If my wife had set up a full backup system that time, she wouldn't have to worry about blue screen loops at all. She plugged in the recovery USB and selected last week's version, and in just over half an hour, both the system and software were back up, and the chat records were all there.

one table clearly explains the division of labor:

my conclusion is that both are compatible, not in conflict. Accidental deletion of file level controllers (I've fallen into the trap of synchronous disks; Drive synchronization accidental deletion can infect , so backup versions are a backup), and the whole system's level controller can be a system-level disaster. If your budget and effort are only for one, choose the full machine if your computer has important software configurations, and choose file-level files for storing only photos and documents.

Active What is Backup? It's free. Let me clarify in advance

Active Backup for Business (abbreviated as ABB) is the official suite for Synology DSM 7 systems. You can install it by name in the kit center, and it's free, unlimited devices, and unlimited capacity. This surprised me quite a bit back then—similar whole-system backup software like Acronis costs a few hundred yuan per license, but Synology gives a NAS for free, and my second-hand DS220+ works too.

By the way, this is Synology's exclusive feature. Feiniu fnOS currently doesn't have a fully integrated backup solution. If you want this feature, you basically have to choose Synology. When choosing a system, you can include it in your chips. I've written about which to choose between Synology and Feiniu I've written about it separately before. After installation, the interface looks like a simplified console, compatible with four types of users: Windows computers, Macs, Synology NAS systems, and file servers. The most practical at home are the first two types. The entry logic for the first configuration is the same style as Synology's first setup—just follow the guide, and the real thinking comes in the later sections.

the configuration record of my three computers, the deduplication effect is real.

In short: install Active Backup → in the suite center. After opening, click the "Computer" tab to add a device → a download link for the installation package → install the agent client on each computer → create a task on the NAS side and select "Full System Backup."

first full-data test for reference: my desktop C drive took up 237GB, with a gigabit LAN running at 110MB/s at max and 42 minutes at full speed; My wife's Xiaoxin C drive is 96GB. Since both my desktop and I have Win11 plus the same batch of commonly used software, after deduplication, the NAS actually only takes up 31GB more; My father-in-law's desktop is 72GB, but similarly, it only takes up 22GB. The three computers combined have a 405GB drive, with the NAS actually occupying about 290GB. This is ABB's block-level deduplication—two machines store only one copy of the same block in a system, so the more similar the family computers, the more economical it is.

agent client's backend presence is very low; CPU usage in Task Manager is almost zero, only the backup window reads the disk. The first time, don't run the full game at night; I ran one by one on Sunday mornings.

plan tasks and keep versions, don't set them up in the wrong place

run them all. The incremental and manual backups later are on a completely different scale. ABB uses CBT (Unusual Block Tracking) to monitor which blocks on the market have changed, and from the second time onward, only the changing portions are transmitted daily. I tested three machines with daily incremental 2 to 8GB per day, running for just over ten minutes at noon. For the task plan, I set it to 12 noon every day—the whole family has lunch, the computer is on, and this window is the most stable.

three pitfalls to be mentioned in advance:

first, sleeping causes you to miss the window. It's fine if the desktop isn't sleeping, but if the laptop closes and goes to sleep at the right time, I'll skip this backup. Either extend the sleep window or set the task window wider (I set it to 12:00 to 3:00 pm, so if the computer is awake within the three-hour window, I just run it again).

second, keep the version without using the default. All default versions are retained, with one version per day and 365 versions per year, so the space is growing rapidly. In the task settings, I changed my retention strategy to keep the last 30 versions—once a day, which is exactly a month—to balance space and security. Even if they actually recover, very few people can return to the state they were in a month ago.

third, it is a battle with NAS hard drive hibernation. The noon backup task wakes up the drive on time every day. My NAS was originally set to sleep for 20 minutes, but this task caused frequent start-stop cycles. hard drive sleeps keep waking up The list of suspects in that post about copying the drive is a major offender in the official backup task. I set the hibernation wait to 40 minutes, and after finishing the midday mission, I could take a nap. The number of start/stop attempts visibly dropped.

the real emergency solution: bare-body restoration in practice. The full 47-minute

whole system backup looks like a decoration at first, but only in the emergency moment does it really matter. I just copied the complete process from when I replaced the SSD:

first step, prepare the USB drive recovery in advance. On the left side of the ABB console, find the download portal for the "Restore Media Creation Tool" (also available on the Synology official download center), and use a USB drive of at least 8GB to create a bootable disk. This had to be done in advance—the computer with a crashed system couldn't open the browser or download tools. I did it in advance, so I wasn't worried if it crashed.

Step 2: Insert the broken machine into a new drive (or original drive repair), insert the recovery USB drive, and press F12 (Lenovo)/F11/DEL to boot up and select the USB drive. Once you enter a streamlined system, it will ask you to enter your NAS address and account password.

Step 3: After connecting, select your device and the version. That time, I chose the version from the night before the replacement. The 237GB fully restored device took 47 minutes—a few minutes slower than the backup, because the restore side had write verification, which was normal.

Step 4: After unrolling, reboot, and go straight to the desktop. WeChat, browser favorites, Steam, printer multicast configuration—all included. That feeling of "nothing has ever happened" is something you can never go back to once you try it.

one more thing: ABB can directly "mount" a backup version, browsing files like opening a network drive and dragging out individual files. Once, my wife wanted to find a PPT from three months ago. That's exactly how I pulled her out—I didn't touch the system.

Wrapping Up Three Pitfalls, Who Doesn't Mess with

Pitfall One: Mac agents are weak, don't expect too much. ABB's Mac client can be installed and used, but its features are thinner than the Windows version. Once closed, backups are not restored, and planning flexibility is poor, which has drawn a lot of complaints in the community. At home, I honestly use Time Machine on my Mac. I backed up my file to NAS and followed the Time Machine quota setup. Generally, Mac's overall system requirements aren't as essential as Windows.

Pitfall 2: The whole system backup is also on the NAS, but the NAS is not the end. There's an old saying in the backup world: 'Only one backup doesn't exist.' All my whole system backups lie on Synology. If something happens to Synology itself (extortion, losing drives, lightning strikes), the whole family backup system is doomed. So the NAS itself needs to prepare another layer, the old rule of the 3-2-1 backup the old rule of that article: keep one copy of important data outside the NAS; To go deeper, NAS devices accessible on public networks are themselves targeted, the snapshot and read-only backup from the ransomware article deserve to be included together.

Pitfall 3: Decide whether to only prepare a C drive or a full drive. In the task, you can select whole-machine, system partition, or custom partition. I chose the full machine because the D drive also contains engineering files; If your D drive is filled with movie downloads, then there's no need to keep the whole machine ready every day. Switching to file-level directory selection saves space.

and provide a copy in order: install the package→ install agents on each computer→ run the first full operation (choose weekend mornings), →immediately restore the USB drive→ store it in the drawer set daily incremental tasks and keep 30 versions→ dig up an old version each quarter, mount a file, and confirm the backup is active. Backups are only true backups that have been rehearsed; those that haven't been practiced are psychological comfort.