System State to replace Windows System Restore?

Hi,

How does a System State restore compare to Windows Vista's built in System Restore? I've used System Restore many times and it works well on Vista (not so on XP), but it takes up a lot of space and the Shadow copy service is a resource hog I would like to disable. For instance, does a System State backup contain the registry? Ideally I would like to use True Image for "all things backup and restore", so if I could dump System Restore it would be great and just schedule frequent System State backups to my local disk (keeping other backups on an external drive).

 

Christian:

You can always reduce the amount of space occupied by the Vista Shadow Copies/Restore Points. Here is one of many articles that describe how to do this.

If you use TI to create full image backups then you could choose to completely disable System Restore and rely instead on TI for recovery.

 

I feel that my computer got snappier after disabling shadow copy (and also indexing). Yes, I do back-up full images to a USB drive.

So what you are saying is that keeping a System State backup on my drive doesn't replace System Restore?

Another issue is how long does it take to restore from a full image? I work for a software company so I have to run all kinds of alphas ans betas messing it up to the point where I need to restorer. System Restore has been very helpful since I need to at least once a month. If a full TI restore takes hours I am not sure it's practical for me. I can't be without my laptop for that long.

 

If I were you I would get another hard drive for testing those alphas and betas. You can put the drives in what's called mobile racks for easy interchanging. Using TI is also good to do a Restore or for that matter, have two drives, both mounted internally in those mobile racks. Then you can either use the Clone feature of TI or simply pull one out when you need to use the other for testing. Most systems nowadays will boot from either drive if it's the only one in the computer - whether it is connected on the secondary channel or as a slave, as long as it's the only one.

 

Even though it is a laptop it is not much more difficult to swap over hard drives than to change a light bulb.
It is also a lot safer. Not only is the previous drive outside the computer but you also do not have to climb a ladder.

Xpilot

 

Sorry, didn't realize this was a laptop ... forget the mobile rack idea. Still, as Xpilot suggests, a second drive is a feasible option.

 

Depending on your hardware, TI should restore at a rate between 1 and 3 GB/min. Closer to the former if done from a partition on the same disk and closer to the latter if done from a second internal disk.

I can't speculate about Acronis System State backups, although in general I would be skeptical. In order to do this properly Acronis would have to be intimately familiar with Windows. What happens if Microsoft comes out with a service pack or an update that changes some of the internal details? I would suspect that System State may also have to be patched to keep up with Microsoft's changes.

It's hard to go wrong with an image of the whole partition; you don't have to be aware of the internal details of Windows to get this right - you just copy the entire thing and restore it as-is.