What exactly is included in the System backup found under System>Tools>Backups?
Best Answer
It depends on the version.
For CE 1.5 and lower you can only back-up your database.
In version CE 1.6 you can back-up your media folder also along with the database, and you can back-up the file system of your Magento instance. All files and folders.
Starting CE 1.7, in addition to what CE 1.6 offers, you can choose to back-up your file system without the media folder.
Maybe the var folder does not have the proper rights?
When the database grows bigger, the Magento backup function simply fails to do its job because it's too big to handle. Then you have to backup mysql directly.
Best Answer
It depends on the version.
mediafolder also along with the database, and you can back-up the file system of your Magento instance. All files and folders.mediafolder.