On Windows, my favorite by far is ShadowProtect. It's actually a sector-by-sector backup that pretends to be a file-by-file backup when you restore a file.
What's great about this is when you modify a huge file, it only backs up the actual sectors you changed. (Most Windows backup programs detect changes on a file-by-file basis.) I have it set to run a full incremental backup every 15 minutes; the backup typically takes 15-30 seconds and is unnoticeable when it happens.
Even though it's a sector backup, you can still restore specific files or do a complete system recovery, either to the same/compatible device or with a Hardware Independent Restore to different hardware. I've done each of these many times.
On OSX, I'm using Time Machine, but I wish there were something as good as ShadowProtect. It is a bummer when I touch a few sectors in a huge file like a VM disk image, and the best Time Machine can do is back up the entire file again.
You could exclude those kinds of files from Time Machine, and use your VM's own backup system.
Protecting the entire system should be something that is done near line so if you have a catastrophic loss your time to recovery is less than that if everything was stored somewhere in the cloud. Or Just not do it at all and rely on a tool manage the configuration of your system.
Data files and configuration are really the best thing to protect with a tool like this. If you have a total loss your playbook should include something like replacing the failed hardware, Installing and patching the OS, replaying configuration of the system using ansible or chef, restoring data files.
To me this is the fundamental gap that cloud backup solutions need to fill to really capture the consumer market well. The SMB market already has this as you goto IT and get your system reloaded and then restore your user data, its pretty much the standard for larger corps.
http://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/overview.html
SuperDuper is the easiest to use, and I would recommend it to anyone as their first choice.
CCC and ChronoSync both have more advanced features: including bootable network copies, and backing the recovery partitions.
ChronoSync also offers two-way folder sync's, enterprise features, and more.
http://alternativeto.net/software/norton-ghost/?platform=win...
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5495-system-image-create-...
the physical death of a drive is not the only reason you may find yourself needing a bootable backup:
* accidentally deletion of system files * theft, fire * system update that goes wrong