n00b Questions, Acronis True Image Home 2009

1) System State backup in Full, Incremental and Differential image backups.
Does a 'Full' image backup with Acronis True Image Home 2009 create a 'system state' backup or should I also use a separate "System State" backup? How about when using a "Differential" or "Incremental" backup? Do they require a separate System State backup?

2) Bootable Rescue Media.
Is the bootable rescue media 'generic' or machine specific? If I create a BRM on one machine can I use it on any machine or should I create BRM's for each machine? I have three licenses for three different machines.

The Knowledge Base has so much content that searches for these specific items yielded a glut of information that was not related to my questions.

Thank you for your Time.

 

A Full image backup includes Everything and is all you need. I don't think Acronis has ever satisfactorily explained precisely what a "System State" backup is or includes. Many of us just ignore it.

It is generic. You can use it on any machine, but be sure to test it on all three machines. The rescue media uses Linux for its operating system and you need to verify that it works properly on all of your hardware. A good test is to boot your machine with the rescue media and verify that it sees all of your internal disks, any attached external USB disks, and your wired ethernet network. If so, it will probably work fine when you need it.

 

Thank you for your Response!
According to Microsoft an XP System State includes registry, COM+ Class Registration database, files under Windows File Protection, and boot files.
How about during Incremental and Differential backups? I haven't seen any problem with a Full backup, but I haven't tried a restore with a Inc/Diff as of yet.
I use terabyte SATA drives in a trayless removable drive bay for a backup media. While this leaves lots of room for backups, I don't want to do Full backups if most of the files haven't changed from backup to another.

Again, thank you for your time!

 

swasham:

You can do differential or incremental images with ATI from a base full image. These will save some space compared to always doing full images.

My comments were mainly directed to the so-called "System State" backup, which IMHO is useless. You can recover from almost any calamity if you have an image of the entire disk. Who knows what you have if you make a "System State" backup, or what it will help you recover from. I don't like guessing games.