GPL-3.0 · Windows

Disk imaging backup you can actually trust

Open Pickle Backup System brings block-level imaging, differential chains, AES-256-GCM encryption and read-only WinFsp mounts to Windows — with a headless CLI for scripted environments.

OPBS

What it does

📀 Block-level imaging

Back up entire disks or individual partitions with per-block CRC-32 integrity checking. Full images, incremental deltas and Windows VSS snapshots all share the same engine.

Zstandard + zlib

Zstd multithreaded compression in a native addon for maximum speed, with a pure-JS fallback and classic deflate for backward compatibility.

🔒 AES-256-GCM encryption

Per-block authenticated encryption with PBKDF2-SHA256 key derivation. Passphrase never reaches the elevated helper process.

🔄 Incremental chains

Store only changed blocks via CRC-matching against the full ancestor chain. USN journal support reads only NTFS-mutated sectors.

💾 Read-only mount

Mount any partition from an image as a real drive letter via WinFsp with zero extra disk usage — reads are served on demand by decompressing only the needed blocks.

📁 File-level browse & extract

Browse and restore individual files or folders without restoring the whole disk. Supports NTFS sparse runs, LZNT1 compression, alternate data streams and chained images.

💿 Macrium image support

Read and browse Macrium Reflect 7/8 (.mrimg) and Reflect X (.mrimgx) images directly — including QuickLZ container decoding validated against stored block MD5s.

🧲 Disk-to-disk clone

Copy live partitions straight to another disk via VSS with no intermediate image file. Supports dissimilar layouts, fresh GPT/MBR tables and grow-on-restore.

🪟 Windows Explorer integration

Right-click any .opbs image to Browse, Mount, Restore or Verify — registered per-user with no admin rights. A Settings toggle controls the handler.

Scheduled backups

Schedule with a friendly day-picker — every day, chosen weekdays, or a specific day of the month plus a time — with a raw cron editor for power users. Runs in-app while open, and native Windows Task Scheduler integration covers fully unattended headless backups and verification. Network shares (UNC or smb://) work as scheduled destinations too.

🌐 Network-share destinations

Back up to local folders, network shares (UNC \\server\share), and file:// / smb:// URIs. S3 buckets write locally then upload (SigV4), and SFTP servers stream the finished image over the ssh2 client.

🩺 VSS maintenance

Keep Volume Shadow Copy healthy: service state and start type, a deep writer/provider inventory, a non-destructive snapshot smoke test, and one-click repair that re-registers the core VSS DLLs and starts the service.

📊 Storage health & disk performance

A transparent 0–100 reliability score per destination combining free space, chain integrity, verification, scrub and drill coverage, and SMART health. A non-destructive write/read benchmark (256 MiB scratch file) feeds the score and flags slow or failing drives up front.

🧩 Parity self-healing

Every backup gets an XOR-parity sidecar (.opar). An idle or scheduled scrub re-reads every block, re-checks CRCs, and rebuilds any single corrupted block in place — bit-rot protection that works on encrypted images without a passphrase.

🛠 Headless CLI

Script every operation — backup, restore, verify, prune, clone, browse, mount — from the command line. Ideal for task schedulers and automation pipelines.