Backup with Folder Exclusion - NOT Working
I've been using Echo Workstation 8.398 for some time without encountering issues until this week.
I'm attempting, as I regularly do, to create to an image backup of 419GB of files, excluding a folder of 173GB. That should result in 246GB, which using Maximum compression (with a compression ratio of 70%), should result in a 170GB image. However, it won't fit onto a 200GB drive for the first time.
Since the folder name to be excluded has a space in it, I thought it might be the issue. But the syntax I use for the folder exclusion is the same as always: C:\DOWNLOADS\__DUBBING PROJECTS\* So it should exclude the folder "dubbing projects" and all the files it contains.
Could this be the folder name issue, the Maximum compression ratio not working correctly or something else?
Each time the image gets corrupted so I can't check if the folder was included or not or what else might be the problem. I tried it 4 times. Is my only solution at this point to back up to another location and mount the image to see that the folder was excluded and the image compressed at 70%?

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Hi ha ha,
please keep in mind that even maximum compression will not significantly reduce the backup size, if the backup contains essentially compressed files, like .jpg, .pdf or .mp3.
If your image contains many of such files, there might be impossible to compress them more.
Thank you,
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Anna, thank you for that insightful answer. I had forgotten about that.
However, what's odd about this is that I have been creating a backup image, using maximum compressing, and excluding a folder of film edits, for years without problem. Files of 246GB, compressed with what the Acronis documentation indicates is a compression ratio of 70%, should result in approximately a 170GB image. Until now, that's fit onto a 200GB backup drive with plenty of headroom, approximately 30GB still remaining. Since very few files change from one backup to the next, and they most certainly are NOT all compressed files (jpg, pdf, etc.), WHY would this no longer work?
So my questions were:
1) Could the folder exclusion have stopped working correctly, e.g. due to file name or some other issue?
2) Could the compression ratio have stopped working correctly?
Is the only way to test this to compress to another source? Then if the compressed image is less than 200GB it SHOULD fit. If it is larger, mounting it could indicate if the folder was not excluded properly.
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Hi ha ha,
we can only guess now what could affect noticed behavior.
I think that troubleshooting steps that you mentioned can help to determine the cause and see the real picture.
Thank you,
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