Q: How can I quickly check what's backed up when I perform a Data Protection Manager (DPM) bare metal recovery backup?

A: DPM backs up all critical information during a bare metal recovery backup. To check what would be included, make sure the Windows Server Backup Features Command-line Tools feature is installed and run the command below in an elevated command prompt. Say No to the actual backup and it will still show what would be backed up as part of a critical information backup—that's what would be backed up as part of a DPM bare metal recovery backup. In the example below, the system reserved 100MB partition and the C: drive would be backed up.

C:>wbadmin.exe start backup -allcritical -backuptarget:\backupsrvbackups
wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

Retrieving volume information...
This will back up volume System Reserved (100.00 MB),Local Disk(C:) to \backupsrvbackups.
Do you want to start the backup operation?
[Y] Yes [N] No N

The operation ended before completion.