Disk/Image Backup with Exclusions of folders not working

I think it should be in this form:

C:\files

But, I haven't tested that for a while.

You may also exclude by file extension, e.g.:

*.mp3

tuttle wrote:

I think it should be in this form:

C:\files

But, I haven't tested that for a while.

You may also exclude by file extension, e.g.:

*.mp3

Thanks for your response. Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I have tried both "C:\temp" and "C:\temp\" and neither works. I also tried the Browse option and it added "C:\temp" - but the directory was included in the image still.

inside the backup, did the directory have contents or was it just listed but empty?

GroverH wrote:

inside the backup, did the directory have contents or was it just listed but empty?

Took the words out of my mouth. :)

GroverH wrote:

inside the backup, did the directory have contents or was it just listed but empty?

All the files in there were backed up.

When uploading a screenshot, you can upload the jpg directly without putting insde pdf.
File attachment option at bottom of each of your postings.

Try using and this is just trying several diferent things.
I am not surprised the folder name was included but was surprised at the contents included.
c:\temp\*.*
c:\files\*.*

GroverH wrote:

When uploading a screenshot, you can upload the jpg directly without putting insde pdf.
File attachment option at bottom of each of your postings.

Try using and this is just trying several diferent things.
I am not surprised the folder name was included but was surprised at the contents included.
c:\temp\*.*
c:\files\*.*

I added both "c:\temp\*.*" and "c:\temp\*" last night and it still added the files inside the folder (note that there are many subfolders inside c:\temp"). Now I have concluded that for some reason exclusion of folders is not supported in ATI2014; maybe exclusion of specific files are supported (I didn't try file exclusion). Thanks to everyone who responded.

I tried the folder exclusion on a computer with Windows7 and ATI2010 - it worked as designed: the excluded folder was not included in the TIB file. But folder exclusion doesn't not work in ATI2014. This appeared to be a bug in ATI 2014. In case somebody else has the same problem, hope this post will save them some time to try it out.

Hello Everyone!

Dong Li, the issue you've faced is an unknown one and needs investigation.

Since we couldn't reproduce it in our environment, we would be glad to have logs from your machine.

I've sent you a step-by-step instruction via PM.

Your help will be deeply appreciated!

Thank you.

Thank you Anna, The system report was uploaded as instructed. Dong

Thanks for posting this thread, Dong.

I can concur that I am also having the exact same problem, same OS.

HOWEVER, I take a weekly system image (manually, using a job I saved) and last week at this time the same job ran and it excluded my two folders. This week, I returned home, ran the job and now I'm experiencing what Dong experienced.

I even tried removing and re-adding the folders from my backup settings and still the same result.

Since ATI 2014 was not updated, then the only thing I can think of is a Windows Update must have changed something to have the effect on ATI 2014.

All I can say is that this functionality is DESPERATELY needed back because in my case I am excluding some 50GB!

The problem is not just limited to folders. I just manually moved my 50GB folder somewhere else and ran the backup job. However, swapfile.sys and pagefile.sys were still getting backed up.

Exclusions are not working at all.

And as far as a Windows Update affecting it, I checked and the only update I have between the last week's backup and today is an Internet Explorer Flash Player fix and I definitely do not believe it is that, so now I'm totally confused as to what it could be.

I am going to try exporting the backup job, uninstalling and reinstalling ATI 2014.

Uninstalling and reinstalling ATI 2014 worked for me.

Note that I used Revo Uninstaller to do a full install and cleanup, including the registry. When I re-ran ATI 2014, imported the job settings, then ran the job, it excluded the files and folders as it did previously.

I have the same problem.
Yesterday I downloaded and installed ATI 2014 (demo 30 days before buying). Today I did a backup with exclusions but all the folders where added with sub-folders and files.
In the window: Disk backup options / Exclusions, I used the Browse button to create it
Ex. c:\Portable\Backup\VMWare\
I even added *.vmdk to exclude the main virtual disk.
See attachment for all definitions.

When I mount the .tib backup via "Tools and utilities / Mount image" the files are inside the backup.

Windows 8 pro x64

Otherwise I would be very happy with this program.

It should be noted that the pagefile/swapfile, do not get backed up. What happens is a placemarker (or pointer if you prefer) is inserted into the image with the correct size marked. The actual space taken up in the image is zero, there is no need for the actual file as Windows will always recreate it if it is missing, there is also no information in the file that is required on restore.

I will remove pagefile/swapfile from my exclusion list. Is it the same with the hiberfil.sys (fast boot) file?

What can I do to make the exclusion list work on the other folders and extensions? Or is this a bug in the program?

Gunn wrote:

Is it the same with the hiberfil.sys (fast boot) file?

Yes for XP.

What can I do to make the exclusion list work on the other folders and extensions? Or is this a bug in the program?

How are you at the moment entering the exclusions?

Full steps when I create a new backup definition:
Backup and recovery (tab)
Disk and partition backup (button above)
All default settings are OK
Disk backup options
Exclusions (tab)
Files matching the following criteria: is checked
I use the Browse button to select the needed folders + Add button to add to the list
(The full definition is in the attachment of my first post)
OK (button) to end the exclusion definition
If I then use the "Back up now" button, mounting the image after the backup completes, the files from the exclusion list are in the backup.

I added 2 screenshots to show an example.
Screenshot 1 : I mount the image to E:
Screenshot 2 : a folder example that was not excluded

Hello Everyone!

Dong Li, thank you very much for your report! We still cannot reproduce the issue on our systems but in any case the situation will be investigated.

Gunn, I've also sent you a PM with instructions on how to gather information for investigation. We will really appreciate your help, if you can send me a report.

Thank you.

I uploaded the system report as described in the instructions.
You can contact me for more information if needed.

Thank you!

Just wanted to update everyone: the problem went away. Last night when I asked ATI2014 to make another single version disk backup, I was able to make a disk backup (with identical settings) with the folders excluded.

I had not changed anything in ATI2014 (in fact, I used the same setting as the one that failed to exclude the two specific folders). But my laptop went through a few rounds of windows update and rebooting prior to the backup (that's why I wanted to make a fresh backup). I noticed a large number of updates related to Microsoft .Net Framework were installed during the Windows update. I don't know if that was related to this bug.

Anna, could you pass on the information to your support people? I am glad ATI 2014 works as intended at this point.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Dong Li wrote:

Just wanted to update everyone: the problem went away. Last night when I asked ATI2014 to make another single version disk backup, I was able to make a disk backup (with identical settings) with the folders excluded.

Thanks for letting us know. Glad to hear it's working.

I did the test and installed all the .NET Framework 4.5 updates from Windows Update. For the first time the exclusion worked fine. This could be the solution. It never worked before.

Thanks Dong Li for giving this information!

I was too fast with my message. I had to make a new backup with the same options. This time it didn't exclude the folders again.

This is happening to me again! :(

Two weeks ago on 09/29 I uninstalled and reinstalled and exclusions began to work again. One week later when I did the next backup, it worked again.

Now two weeks later and the problem re-appeared!!! Worse, I uninstalled and reinstalled and it still hasn't worked!!!!

This is so @#)$(&$@%&* annoying!!! I can't use the program like this at all!

I did another uninstall and reinstall and the exclusions are working again! :)

I'm not sure how "clean" my uninstall and reinstall were the first time (I use Revo Uninstaller and I also like to reboot after install), but I know for sure I followed my same procedure as I did on 09/29 on this subsequent attempt and the exclusions are working again.

So, for me, the solution still stands as uninstall and reinstall. It's inconvenient, yes, but as long as I can continue to use this (or some other workaround that doesn't have me making a compromise) then I'm okay.

However, this still must be investigated because even with my workaround, where in the past I used to launch my backup jobs and never look back, now I have to monitor and see how long it is taking to determine the bug is back and that is wasting my time.

With the new build I had 2 successful backups with exclusions. How about you?

I use ATI TIB 2014 build 6673 on Windows 7 x86. I don't know since what update it started, but this happens also to me. Backup settings were not changed since years of usage and now suddenly, excluded files and folders started to be included in the backup.

I reinstalled clean, recreated the backup settings, deleted the whole backup files and started clean. It did 3 weekly backups fine, then started again including "excluded" files and folders.

Obviously I'm not the only one with this problem; is there anybody with a fix for this ? My set-it, forget-it and test-it quarterly backup solution is starting to bug me a lot.

Seems to me that the really serious aspect of this is that should an image be restored that contains files which should have been excluded, they will overwrite the current versions. It's a powerful argument for partitioning the drive and moving all personal folders/files to a separate data partition for which backup schemes other than ATI might prove more suitable.

deleted - duplicate

That is effectively a good point of view, I might experiment with that. I want to maximize all my disks usage because my computer is also used as a Windows Media Center which creates a lot of big video files (WTV). I don't want to back those TV shows, I don't care if I loose them.

With 2 x 2TB of storage at nearly full capacity exploited, that solution is a no go for me presently. I need file exclusions to work properly as it used to be. Or I need my wife and kids to view their programs and get rid of it...

It doesn't need any additional storage capacity as you can shrink the OS partition once it is relieved of the personal data load. It also greatly speeds up creating system images and removes any risk of losing personal files when restoring images of the OS. No brainer imo.

If TIB worked the way it used to and is supposed to - that is excluding the files and folders that it's told to - I wouldn't have to play with my disk configuration. I do not have time to monkey around with my computer's configuration each time TIB fails to deliver on an option.

I know there are a lot of alternate solutions, but those are not oriented into resolving the specific issue with TIB raised by the OP. They are alternative ways to do things without TIB involved, that, as stated before, I might experiment in the meantime of issue resolution.

JP wrote:

I reinstalled clean, recreated the backup settings, deleted the whole backup files and started clean. It did 3 weekly backups fine, then started again including "excluded" files and folders.

The procedure I have used is that when I update to a new version, I create all new backups so a change after an update is not so surprising but a when this happens to a new task, I too get concerned.

Would you mind reviewing the several  log files following the last good backup. Maybe there is a clue there.

We have learned that editing or changing a task can cause un-expected results

I am also assuming tht you did not perform a restore during that period. As best I can remember, this is the first posting (that I can recall) where this complaint has been posted.

Thank you GroverH, deleting my backup task and recreating it was the solution. So for other peoples in the same situation, try first to create a new backup task.

I went through my exclusions settings again before recreating my task, and I realized that one of my original folder was deleted. It might be that TIB doesn't like a folder to be invalid and skip the whole exclusion thing.

No matter what, deleting and recreating made my problem go away.

Since the update to build 6673 I've had this non-exclusion problem. It took me a while to find out it was happening.

I've deleted the backups and recreated them (many times), all to no avail. It's a serious problem since I have one disk where I need to backup 400GB of virtual disks but exclude some 1.2TB of other files. This plays havoc with the backup window by extending it to some 10+ hours for a fresh backup and similar for backup consolidation.

I haven't yet tried an uninstall and re-install, but I'm going to have to try it. After years of working solidly with my folder exclusions this problem is serious enough to start looking at alternate solutions.

I'd really hoped to find a sure fire solution on the forums rather than uninstall and keep your fingers crossed.

Acronis help file for 2014
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#…
------------------------------------------------------------------------

My comments:

The exclusions should be put into a new file especially if you upgraded to a new build or version.
The exclusions should be put into a new file as editing any task is never a good idea.

I an assuming this is a partition or disk backup and not a files only backup.
Inside the exclusion feature, use the browse feature (on each listing) and browse to and select the folder which is to be excluded. Let the program add the path to the exclusion. It path should appear in the acceptance window ending in a backword slash such as
d:\mytextfiles\

If the addition is by file type then, list by such as
*.mp4
*.avi

If you wish to provide a screen capture of what is failing, we can try to help there.

Mark,
Another option to tryu is a progam such as TreeSize Free to confirm the paths to the foldlers you want to exclude.

This free program will list all folders and their content via a directory tree.

http://www.jam-software.de/treesize_free/

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/screenshots.shtml

Nusaram wrote:

Uninstalling and reinstalling ATI 2014 worked for me.

I had pretty much the same problem. Uninstalling and reinstalling did NOT work for me.

Also, deleting and recreating the backup task did not work either.

I'll chime in to say that I just now performed a FULL (disk mode) image of system drive. I attempted to exclude all contents of two folders sitting on root C:\. At first I thought I too was experiencing the same problem as described here. When creating settings (which I made default), I used ATI2014 to browse to the two folders and when each one was opened up in Exclusion dialog, I added *.* after the \ (backslash).
C:\folder name\*.* ---

1.) Individual files right under C:\folder name\ WERE NOT backed up. Technically ATI2014 followed instructions perfectly. But of course all the subfolders were included and that's where the whopping 2G of stuff was that I did not want backed up.

2.) Must I exclude each and every subfolder (there are many) or will simply excluding the top folder (without adding *.*) be sufficient to omit the main folder and all its subfolders from the backup image?

3.) Does anyone know for certain the correct setting format to get this fairly straightforward task accomplished? Please?

Running Win7 Asus Laptop using 2014- 6614.
One 750 spin disk installed with one of the partitons marked as Data Drive D and is a 500GB partition.
90% of my data on this is in a folder named Storage which has many many sub-folders under the main Storage folder.
on the exclusions page, I browsed to the folder and used the Add feature.
This path was added to the exclusions list by the program.
D:\Storage\

The task was new and the first and only backup so far did successfully exclude the folder, and both the folder name and its contents were excluded from the disk mode backup. Other parts of the root tree of D which were not asked to be excluded did appear within the backup.

Note:
If doing a files only backup, I would create a special category and list the folder within the specail category to be excluded from the backup.

It took two reinstalls of ATI and splitting the backups in to two jobs but the exclusion lists are working again.

I think that modifying an exclusion list after the first backup run may do something to the registry that causes the exclusion list to be ignored. But since it takes over 5 hours to run the initial backup jobs I'm not going to try to track that down.

Another annoying thing about all this disruption is having to recreate the CDP I have on a couple of source code directories. Hopefully the backup jobs will continue to run properly now.

In my simple scenario...GroverH, your sample instructions helped. The next back up excluded the two folders I wanted. No problem. Thanks!

post deleted.

Elden,
Post more details of your issue and maybe some of us can help you find a working solution.

Link to help file.
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#…

GroverH wrote:

Elden,
Post more details of your issue and maybe some of us can help you find a working solution.

My working solution was to partition my hard drive.

I am running the latest version of Acronis True Image on an up-to-date version of Windows 8.1.

My drive's partition table is MBR.

I'm doing a Disk/Partition level backup and the exclusion path I specified is not being honored.

I chose the excluded path by using the browse button. So the syntax of the exclusion should be correct.

This was working at one time. Today was the first time it failed.

Now that I have partitioned my drives, fixing this bug will no longer help me. But it certainly needs to be fixed.

The problem came back again on March 19th (e.g. File exclusion not doing it's job). Last successful backup occurred on March 12th (once a weed on Wednesdays) since February 22th.

This time, I can assure that I *didn't* edit the backup settings. And just to be sure, I had removed automated consolidation when I set up the backup initially, so my backup scheme is first full, then only incremental afterwards.

There is 350 GB free on my external HD and incremental backups usually take 15GB. Nothing changed on my pc out of the ordinary that would trigger an oversized backup to occur, except Windows Updates that were pushed March 12th just before the other successful backup.

Some toughs about what could be causing the problem:
- I've set up encryption AES 256 thought, which I will remove for my next tryout;
- I'm using the French version of the software, which seems to behave the same as the English version since other people have the same problem here (I assume that I'm the only one using French);

JP

Don't know why you are having issues but do suggest you start over.
I don't know if encryption is a factor. Have you used it in the past with successful results?

Also suggest you change your backup scheme to similar to the link below except you the number of inc's to be kept or the number of chains (store x number ...) can be changed to fit your storage needs.
The reason I am suggesting a change from your current is that 1 full plus the rest inc's is open ended and you will need to perform manual deletion later if you were to continue. My suggestion will provide for automatic deletion of the old backups after 'store x" quota has been reached.

This example can be used on "disk mode" backups or "files only" backups.

When creating the exclusions, do use the browse and add option rather than a manual input of a task.

Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains.

Get your settings all correct on the new task before you start using it so no further edits needed.

GroverH wrote:

Get your settings all correct on the new task before you start using it so no further edits needed.

I know you're trying to help. But properly designed software doesn't BREAK when you do something that is clearly in the scope of what it allows you to do. This idea that you have to do things a certain way and hold your mouth just right or else the software won't work correctly is ludicrous.

Finally someone has put into a few words how I've been feeling about a couple of issues with Acronis. What he said.....