Most of the users who try to backup their Dell server using Windows Server Backup (WSB) receive an error saying "Volume(s) OS have an unsupported file system and cannot be backed up". If you have a Dell computer that is or was running Windows Server 2008(R2) or Windows Server 2012(R2), this may be of your concern.
WSB can only backup partitions that are NTFS formatted. If you open Disk Management, you will see a 2GB FAT32 partition labeled as OS. The OS partition is probably from Dell's initial setup.
If you want to create a backup including system image, this OS partition will be included because its status is Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition). Then, you will receive the "Volume os use an unsupported file system and cannot be backed up" due to its FAT32 file system.
After understanding the causes, the most important thing is to solve this problem. Here you will learn 3 solutions in the following, try them one by one.
The simple solution is to skip this partition by creating a custom server backup. If you want to create a system backup, you can just select system state, system reserved partition and C: drive on MBR disk. If your system is on a GPT disk, you need to select system state, EFI system partition and C: drive.
Windows Server Backup is not installed by default, thus you need to open Server Manager abd then click Features > select Add Features > tick Windows Sever Backup Features and install it.
Afterward, you can create a system image in Windows Server 2008 or 2012 with Windows Server Backup.
You can delete the 2GB system partition in Disk Management or DiskPart.exe. It is recommended to deactivate the partition before deleting it because there are chances that you may not be able to reboot the machine. When it fails to boot, you can run a system repair to surely fix it.
Here take Disk Management as an example to delete partition. Type diskmgmt.msc in the search box and hit enter, then you will see this software.
Then, select the partition cause "volume os use an unsupported file system and cannot be backed up" error and click Delete Volume. Afterward, finish the rest of steps.
The above ways can help you fix backup volume have unsupported file system error effectively. But if you want to avoid this backup error or other potential failures, using a reliable server backup software like Qiling Disk Master Server may be a better choice. It supports backing up a partition with all file systems, including NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, EXT2, and EXT3. And you can benefit from the following advantages:
Now, you may want to try this software! Please download it on your computer and install it. Then, launch it, click Backup and System Backup, it will select all the boot related partitions.
Then, select a destination path to store the backup image. You could consider backup Windows Server 2008 or 2012 to external hard drive, USB drive, network drive, NAS, etc.
After that, click Proceed to back up system partition.
You can easily fix the "Volume os have an unsupported file system" with above 3 ways. If you don't want to make any further data loss or system recovery problem, you can choose to backup system with a third-party backup software. It backs up partitions formatted with all file system and provides you with multiple useful features to make this task flexibly. For advanced users, try Qiling Disk Master TechPlus.