Unable to exclude a file from file backup
On my Windows 7 laptop the only hard disk is the C drive. In a sub-folder (C:\Users\MyName) I have a 200Gb file containing an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. The contents are copies of files on my main PC which I have already backed-up, so I do not want the copies backed-up.
I have tried excluding this 200Gb file from the backup by spelling the exact name of the file and by using a partial name with asterisks as wild cards, it still gets backed-up. Is this a known problem ? Is there a workaround ?
Comments
Hi, I can't confirm that.
Folder Exclusion as well as File Exclusion worked for me with Backupper 2.0.
Pit
I believe that you will only be able to clearly see the problem if the file to be excluded is very large (possibly an executable or zip) relative to the files/folders that you do wish to back up.
Image "C Drive Space Utilisation" shows that if I select all :-
files from the root of the C drive - except hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys
folders from the root of the C drive - but exclude the 200 Gb C:\Users\Mike\SecretSquirrel file
then only 37.5 Gb of data should be backed up from my Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) laptop.
The backup will be written to the 20140427 folder, which is inside the TrueCrypt volume on the external drive (E) which has been mounted as drive letter F - see the "Laptop with external drive" image.
The full list of files and folders in the root of the C drive are shown in the "Step C1" image.
Image "Step C2" shows the way that I configured the Files backup.
The backup ran for 2 hours 12 minutes.
For about 1 hour 30 minutes, the screen was displaying the information shown in the "Step C4" image.
This implies to me that it was compressing C:\Users\Mike\SecretSquirrel even though it should have been excluded.
After it finished, I checked the size of the backup. It was 217.5 Gb - see the "Step C6" image. I believe that it should be around 34 Gb.
I believe that the additional 183.5 Gb comes from the 200 Gb file that should have been excluded.
When I explore the image, the name of the file that was to be excluded is missing - see the "Step C7" image - this incorrectly gives the impression that it was never backed up.
Hi MikeParfitt,
We verified there shouldn't have such a problem. Could you please retry. When you are are going to do the backup task, please input the name of the file which you want to exclude in the form like in the picture below:
Thus it could be excluded.
If you have any further questions please feel free to let us know.
Best Regards,
Kim
AOMEI Support Team
Although you described your problem very detailed, I still can't reproduce it. I created a file with a size of over 200 GB and renamed it to "SecretSquirrel". This name I entered as "File Exclusion Mask" and the file was not backed up.
Pit
It took a number of experiments, but I can now tell you exactly how to reproduce the problem.
On a Windows 7 PC (mine is the 64-bit version) if you define a files backup and add these two "folders" :-
C:\Documents and Settings
C:\Users
the resulting file will contain two copies of everything in C:\Users - in particular see the E and F images attached.
This is because C:\Documents and Settings is NOT a real folder, it is a link to C:\Users :-
this has been implemented by Microsoft to allow older software to continue to work.
If I were to try and add any folder twice to the same backup, your software would stop me, with a message telling me that I had already added that folder - I know, because I accidentally selected the same folder twice on an earlier occasion.
Unfortunately, the same logic does not handle the situation described above.
I think that the same problem could arise in respect of libraries.
The attachments document my experiments. Images A-D are exactly what you would expect to happen. Images E and F show the duplication problem when a folder is selected as well as a link to the same folder.
How did you manage to add the "Documents and Settings" folder? When I browse for the folders I want to backup, AOMEI does not show symbolic links:
Pit
I am an administrator on all of my PCs and I always have my folder options set as shown below
This may be why all of the hidden and system folders are listed in the AOMEI "add folder" dialogue shown below
It's expected that an admin knows what he's doing.
There are good reasons why some files and folders are hidden by default. As you mentioned, these symbolic links are only for compatibility with older software. AOMEI support has to decide, whether it's a bug or not - in my opinion it's not. On the other hand it should be not a big thing to teach Backupper not to follow symbolic links.
Pit
Agreed, my only excuse is that I have recently upgraded, having spent many happy years using and supporting systems on Windows XP. Shall I raise it as a suggested enhancement ?
Hello MikeParfitt,
Thank you so much for your diagnose, it is very instructive for me. I will report this problem to our Development staff. I hope this could be optimized in the later versions.
Best Regards,
Kim