The System State

What is the System State?

The System State consists of the core files and registry settings that are used by the Windows operating system.

The System State includes the following information:

• The boot files
• The system registry settings
• The system protected files (SPF). These are the critical files needed to run Windows. For example KERNEL32.DLL and NTDLL.DLL.
• The Active Directory files
• The shared system volume (SYSVOL)
• The COM+ class registration database

Windows Server 2000 or 2003: When NTBACKUP backs up your computer, it backs up the System State separate from the other information on your computer. Look for the backup item “System State” in the NTBACKUP information pane.

Windows Server 2008: The System State is backed up with the console command wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backupTarget:E:. Substitute E: with the letter of your backup disk. A backup of the System State is usually not required on Windows Server 2008 because it is already included when backing up all critical disks using wbadmin start backup -allCritical.

System State is not sufficient for moving AD

UMove can restore AD on the same computer using only the System State. However, the System State alone is not sufficient to move AD to a different computer. Additional data files are required to move AD to a different computer. To move AD to a different computer you must have a backup copy of the system drive (usually C:).

If you let UMove create the .BKF file for you (recommended), it will back up the minimal set of required files that are sufficient to move AD to a different computer. For a list of the minimal required files see the Layout of the Staging Folder.

Faster Backup: Reducing the size of the System State

UMove is interested only in the Active Directory files. So it instructs NTBACKUP to exclude the system protected files (SPF) to save time and disk space. See Reducing the Size of the Backup for more information.