Excluding directories from offline-backup

*** double post deleted by newbie *** :)

Ralf, welcome to these user forums.

To exclude folders from your backup you will either need to put the whole path to those folders, or use wildcard letters.

Example: *\TestData\* should exclude anything that has a folder called TestData and the contents of that folder.

See the ATIH 2016 User Guide: Excluding items from backup

How to add an exclusion criterion:

• You can enter explicit file names for exclusion from the backup:
  • file.ext - all such files will be excluded from the backup.
  • C:\file.ext - the file.ext file on the C: disk will be excluded.
• You can use wildcard characters (* and ?):
  • *.ext - all files with a .ext extension will be excluded.
  • ??name.ext - all files with a .ext extension, having six letters in their names (starting with any two symbols (??) and ending with name), will be excluded.
• To exclude a folder from a disk-level backup, click the plus sign, click the ellipsis button, go to the directory tree and select the folder you want to exclude, and then click OK.

Ralf,

In the boot media app you would need to add the exact path to the folders you wish to exclude in the exclusion list.  If the folders exist on your C drive then the path would begin with C:\ .

If you view these folders in Windows File Explorer the path is displayed in the address bar at the top of the window.  In Windows 8 up this path looks different as each folder is followed by an (>) arrow which if clicked on will display folders beneath it.  Each (>) arrow is the same as a (\) in a path.

Hi Steve, Hi Enchantech,

thanks a lot, I thiink that´s what I needed :)   *\TestData\* is a good start.

For the drive letter/full path, I have to check next time, because IIRC there were no or wrong letters ?

Not sure, but something confuses the letters, the order, I think my USB-drive.

And there is a difference if the USB-drive is already connected at boot, or when I plug it later,

when True Image is completely started. Of course, TI enumerates them in the order as given

But I can check that now.

PS: If I use an absolute path, does it end with or without the \   ?

C:\dos or C:\dos\  ?

thanks

Ralf

Absolute path ends without the \ .

oh, thanks.

Yesterday, still not knowing about that the " Absolute path ends without the \ " , I did this (offline/CD-boot) image

WITH using the slash at the end of the path yesterday.   (i.e. I excluded C:\Dos\ ) (a bad example, I know) :)

and this worked. At least, no error, and the amount of data in the TIB-files represents that the unwantet (very big) directories

were NOT backuped. So far so good.

So, do you think, this is no good way and I should repeat this first image once more ? Would be no problem for me...

I can remember once there was a hint in the manual of an older version, but I wasn´t able to find that again, this week.

I checked all manuals, starting from 2010er version, had no chance, and finally found this form here.

Ralf

PS how can I remove the space between the lines here, cannot find it ?

PS2, for my drive letter "issue" :)

While checking/unchecking the wanted drives/partitions for the full offline backup, at this point I saw the temporarily, correct drive letters.

They are mentioned there, in this window. The enumarating of the drive numbers also is confused sometimes, but this is normal,

so I only had to look for the actual drive letters at this moment, to see that it is "C:" where I had to exclude "C:\Dos" (to stay on that example)

Ralf,

The \ at the end of path indicates that another folder exists in the path.  If nothing further is specified in the path then the \ is ignored so that everything prior to that last\ is used to locate the excluded folder.  It is not necessary then to recreate the backup as removing the last \ will not change a thing. 

As for your drive letter issue, I am not sure you have one.  I do not understand exactly what it is you are seeing but be advised that the offline media is Linux based and Linus does not use drive letters so when a Windows path is displayed by Linux the driver letters often change to something other than what they really are.  This is normal behavior and not really an issue.

Could one think of anything more inexplicably narrow-minded than not providing the ability to exclude files and folders from a drive offline backup  by checking them directly in a directory tree.  Obviously, the developers of Acronis Boot CD did not guess that, in order to select a file for exclusion, it must first be seen. They probably think that users must remember the path of all the files to be excluded, by heart? That`s poor.