Source files exclusion

This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.

This option is effective for disk-level backup of NTFS and FAT file systems only. This option is effective for file-level backup of all supported file systems.

The option defines which files and folders to skip during the backup process and thus exclude from the list of backed-up items.

The preset is: Exclude files matching the following criteria: *.tmp, *.~, *.bak.

To specify which files and folders to exclude:

Set up any of the following parameters:

  • Exclude all hidden files and folders

    This option is effective only for file systems that are supported by Windows. Select this check box to skip files and folders with the Hidden attribute. If a folder is Hidden, all of its contents — including files that are not Hidden — will be excluded.

  • Exclude all system files and folders

    This option is effective only for file systems that are supported by Windows. Select this check box to skip files and folders with the System attribute. If a folder is System, all of its contents — including files that are not System — will be excluded.

You can view file or folder attributes in the file/folder properties or by using the attrib command. For more information, refer to the Help and Support Center in Windows.

  • Exclude files matching the following criteria

    Select this check box to skip files and folders whose names match any of the criteria — called file masks — in the list; use the Add, Edit, Remove and Remove All buttons to create the list of file masks.

    You can use one or more wildcard characters * and ? in a file mask:

    The asterisk (*) substitutes for zero or more characters in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc*.txt yields files such as Doc.txt and Document.txt

    The question mark (?) substitutes for exactly one character in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc?.txt yields files such as Doc1.txt and Docs.txt — but not the files Doc.txt or Doc11.txt

To exclude a folder specified by a path containing the drive letter, add a backslash (\) to the folder name in the criterion; for example: C:\Finance\

Exclusion examples

Criterion

Example

Description

Windows and Linux

By name

F.log

F

Excludes all files named “F.log”

Excludes all folders named “F”

By mask (*)

*.log

F*

Excludes all files with the .log extension

Excludes all files and folders with names starting with “F” (such as folders F, F1 and files F.log, F1.log)

By mask (?)

F???.log

 

Excludes all .log files with names consisting of four symbols and starting with “F”

Windows

By file path

C:\Finance\F.log

 

Excludes the file named “F.log” located in the folder C:\Finance

By folder path

C:\Finance\F\

Excludes the folder C:\Finance\F (be sure to specify the full path starting from the disk letter)

Linux

By file path

/home/user/Finance/F.log

Excludes the file named “F.log” located in the folder /home/user/Finance

By folder path

/home/user/Finance/

Excludes the folder /home/user/Finance

The above settings are not effective for the files or folders that were explicitly selected for backup. For example, assume that you selected the folder MyFolder and the file MyFile.tmp outside that folder, and selected to skip all .tmp files. In this case, all .tmp files in the folder MyFolder will be skipped during the backup process, but the file MyFile.tmp will not be skipped.

Source files exclusion