About the Advanced Disk-based Backup feature

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
The Advanced Disk-based Backup feature provides the following features:
  • Synthetic backup
This feature enables a full backup to be assembled, or synthesized, from a baseline full backup and subsequent incremental backups.
The benefits of using a synthetic backup include the following:
  • A reduced backup window, since the synthetic backup can be scheduled outside of the time-critical backup window.
  • Reduced network traffic, since the synthetic backup does not need to access the network.
  • True image restore, which enables Backup Exec to restore the contents of directories to what they were at the time of any synthetic full or incremental backup.
  • Off-host backup
This feature enables the backup operation to be processed on a Backup Exec server instead of on the remote computer or host computer. Moving the backup from the remote computer to the Backup Exec server enables better backup performance and frees the remote computer as well.
The Advanced Disk-based Backup feature (ADBO) is installed as part of the Enterprise Server feature, for which you must enter a license on the Backup Exec server.
More Information
How to use synthetic backups in place of recurring full backups
How to use off-host backup to process remote computer backups on the Backup Exec server
About the Backup Exec installation process and licensing options
Setting default backup options for the Advanced Disk-based Backup feature