Yes, you would need to use an image-based backup, and not a file back up. File backups just back up the files that you've selected for backup. They do not image the volume or volumes. Once you have the backup completed you can restore it as a virtual machine or virtual disk; either Hyper-V or VMware.

https://mspbackups.com/AP/Help/restore/ibb/console

Thank you, David.

Do you happen to know where I can find the calculations to determine the size of the resulting image-backup?

I have been told an image backup will be at least the size of the drive. e.g., 500GB disk with 100 GB of data will use 500GB of storage for the image backup. A file level backup, using the same example, would take 100GB of storage.

I know the size should be smaller because of de-duping and compression. I'm ignoring those details for this discussion.

What have you learned or been told?

we only back up the used blocks. Who told you that the image will match the actual volume size?