How can I exclude certain folders when backing up.with BESR

[80srocker]

Hi all, I was wondering if you could help. I wish to use BESR to backup a Server but there are certain folders which I want to be excluded from the backup process. I have read that using the "Backup Files and Folders" option takes too long and is impractical, maybe i'm wrong? I would also want the systems state to be backed up. I will be backing up 200gb. So comparing with NTbackup, you can exclude certain folders from the backup process, but I cant see an option in BESR. Is there a script I can use? I have searched the net but haven't really found what I'm after as of yet. Any help appreciated.

[Markus_Koestler]

You have to use the File&Folder Option to accomplish this. The normal volume based backup option can't be configured to exclude folders.

[80srocker]

Thank you for  your help. However I have read on these forums that the File and Folders option can take forever to backup and that the option isn't as well designed as the complete backup method.

[80srocker]

Ok so I tried backing up using the "Files and Folders" option. It took 12 hours to backup 120GB. No recovery points were made either. Looking in the folder where it was all backed up, all thats there are folders named fbfFiles_xxx.

Surely there is a work around? this seems so impractical?

I can backup the C: Drive using the "Backup my computer" which is fine, this will create a recovery point. I want to backup the fileserver drive which includes Exchange etc, but dont want to backup the whole drive, this is where the problem lies.

[Markus_Koestler · Accepted solution]

There is also another disadvantage of the file and folder backup: If you loose the machine where you took the F&F backup, there is no way to restore the files from within this backup. They are lost forever. I confirmed this with Symantec Support.

A workaround would be to put the data your are interested in on a separate volume and backup only this volume !

[80srocker]

Thanks for the info Markus, thats really good to know. Seems to me then, the File and Folder backup is pretty useless in my case.