Feature Request – Include and or Exclude File Type Extension

[Riyaz.Hussain]

As this product is free hence most of the business users and predominantly the home users would use it. Most of them will have loads of music and movie files which some may not prefer to backup, just like me.

If a Include and or Exclude File Type Extensions Feature is available then it would considerably reduce the backup size as well as the backup window. I guess the current way to address this requirement would be to organize the folders by the end-users itself, however this kind of a feature may help a lot of people to optimize their backups with ease.

[Vitaliy S.]

Include or exclude file types extension feature is available for the File Level backup mode. Thanks!

[haddenmart]

It would also be helpful to designate excluded file types during a full backup. it is my understanding this is already done for other files types such as tmp.

[Mike Resseler]

There are indeed already some exclusions such as temp, recycle bin, page file... What else would you like to see as exclusion @haddenmart, or do you really want to have an option?

[Gostev]

It would also be helpful to designate excluded file types during a full backup.

Again, just as Vitaly stated, you can do that by selecting File-level backup option.

Entire computer option means exactly what it says: entire computer with predefined exclusion list (easiest for inexperienced users - no chance to screw up, best default for the auto-configuration option, etc). Advanced users should use advanced backup mode - this one provides ability to exclude files, while still producing an image-level backup you can perform bare metal recovery from (as long as you tick Operating System check box in the selection).

Thanks!

[cta71]

Would be good to be able to exclude particular folders/patterns from the full computer backup, eg, Movies, Music or any other potentially large folders that may not need to be backed up at all.

Thanks
Charles

[hvbuel]

Second !

[further001]

so my backups are failing on temporary internet files and temp at the file level backup. I added them as excludes already... any suggestions? Do I need to add * before and after?

[Dima P.]

Brent,
Just to clarify what folders or volumes have you selected as a source for file level backup? Thank you.

[further001]

I selected the c:\users folder for file level backup and excluded temp and temporary internet files

[Dima P.]

Check me please:
- You used file level backup mode
- Selected C:\Users as a source
- Deselected temp and temporary internet files in the file tree (or you added them to exclusion list in the file filters?)
- Backup failed

so my backups are failing on temporary internet files

By the way is there any specific error you receive (you can right click the error in the session log copyand paste it here)?

[ciarpame]

I strongly second this request.
Typical users stores big video and audio files on the C drive. Having an option to exclude such files by extension or by path would be great in order to get much smaller backup files.

By the way, thank you very much for this great free backup software.

[ninjaburn81]

I'm on the opposite side this this issue: If I want to go 'simple' and grab everything of consequence, I am going to select 'Entire Computer' (or perhaps Volume) and run with it. If I want to get granular, File Level is my 'Advanced' option that gives me some exclude capabilities. If sounds like some on this thread are already using it that way, so trying to do that from the 'Entire Computer' level seems a bit off. It would be rather difficult to select Entire Computer, then try to ignore ALL .tmp files from that image. (And frankly, may have unintended consequences.) FLR though, that is what it is meant to do, since by it's nature you are grabbing specific files/folders.

Just my two cents.

[Dima P.]

Thank you Adam. This is exactly what we tried to achieve by splitting the backup modes into Entire PC, Volume and File level options.

[justingoldberg]

I'm on the opposite side this this issue: If I want to go 'simple' and grab everything of consequence, I am going to select 'Entire Computer' (or perhaps Volume) and run with it. If I want to get granular, File Level is my 'Advanced' option that gives me some exclude capabilities. If sounds like some on this thread are already using it that way, so trying to do that from the 'Entire Computer' level seems a bit off. It would be rather difficult to select Entire Computer, then try to ignore ALL .tmp files from that image. (And frankly, may have unintended consequences.) FLR though, that is what it is meant to do, since by it's nature you are grabbing specific files/folders.

I guess a solution would be to use partition your drive into boot/c and data/d and then do a file/partition backup on your data/d drive (movies and music, downloads etc) folders. The only issue I see here is, can I do a BMR backup and only backup the c: system drive and the recovery partition?

This is what we normally do on your sql servers at work. We put the ms sql .bak files on a dedicated partition every night, and every night we do a full image to tape, but we image the C Drive twice a week.

[Mike Resseler]

Justin,

Yes, what you are referring to is what we call Hybrid backup. Yes you can do BMR for the C: and recovery partition. It is (almost) the same procedure as for the entire PC BMR recovery, with the difference you need to tell (in the recovery media) what partitions you want to recover.

It is a technique (or solution) that many people use in protecting servers / desktops / laptops... with a C: drive and a D: (data) drive

Cheers

Mike

[kenoboy]

How about being able to ignore warnings on certain things? I have several computers using endpoint and i'm performing a complete system backup, problem is it's warning me about an HP system partition used for restore that's almost full. I would love the ability to ignore this message. Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, these messages should be ignored by default > Processing finished with warnings...