Is it possible to backup the System State of a 2008 server without using wbamdin? The setup in question does support the requirements that wbadmin forces (all volumes are marked as critical).
Third party tools are an option but I would like to keep away from the big money sinks (BE etc)
I think I should expand on this, I have a scenario where it is impossible to use wbadmin to backup my system. All of my volumes are marked as critical and wbadmin will not allow a backuptarget to be a critical volume, it also wont allow a network folder or a removable USB media to be a target either, thus I am looking for third party software that can achieve what the built in wbadmin cannot.
I found a work-around to my problem provided by the following kb article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944530/en-au
Gives instructions on how to modify the registry to allow the backuptarget to be a critical volume. While this is not considered a "best practice" it's the only option I have.
There are numerous third party backup tools that support system state backups. Take your pick of the mix. For an inexpensive one, checkout www.backupassist.com
You can do just a system state backup with wbadmin. Is there a particular reason you can't use wbadmin?