NOT WORKING: Exclude folder (B&R free, version 10.0.15.12802)

With reference to threads
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=268817&highlight=exclude folder
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=264640&highlight=exclude folder
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=295254&highlight=exclude folder
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=257411&highlight=exclude folder
and on the basis of my experience I dare to state what Paragon Software should have done before me that
IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO EXCLUDE A FOLDER from backup because despite the switches IT just DOES NOT WORK!
Although it was free for me to try and use but I wasted much time with the trial as I chose this software instead of Norton Ghost for only this feature.
Nevertheless it is not fair on Paragon's side I hope others will read this before trying.

Good luck everyone

 

looking at the threads it sounds like it creates 0 size files. Working, but not as expected
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1569759&postcount=2

 

I excluded from drive C a folder called "munka" with adding a new category with
filters (just for sure) "c:/munka/", "c:/munka/*.*", "c:/munka/*.", "c:/munka/*",
but opening the result archive all the files and subfolders were there despite the
program's stating "excluding c:/munka/" and there was no problem to extract for
example a file "c:/munka/something.txt" with all the readable data inside.

Because of some unlucky circumstances I have my working folder with all the
output of different software on drive C (instead of a separate partition) which
size is bigger or equal to the rest of drive of the "system" and programs. That is
why that feature is the most important for me. I just wrote this to explain that I
can see "at once" from the size of the archive that it is too big and if there are any
exclusions it may be a very-very little part of the folder (I could not find missing
files anyway).

With another program - in which case the exclusion seemed to work - I got 20 GB
archive instead of B&R's 46GB.

So I am really sad as B&R looked nice, the building of the recovery media was easy
and worked (!) and the program is even free (or maybe that is why it is not "perfect"?).

 

If you did test exclude (the correct mask is folder/*.*) for folder with small TXT files (less than 1KB size) the reason could be in file size.

When file is very small all its content is placed to the MFT (master file table) unlike bigger files which content is placed to FS sectors. MFT always stays intact and files saved in MFT too.

 

Ok, I have not checked all the files, but don't you think that the huge amount of more then 20 GB (in difference) is a really big space apart from what and how the archive contains it?
Believe me, it does not work!
Of course, there should be some special thing (??) in my case causing the failure but the links I attached above support my opinion.

 

I have been trying to exclude a very large folder (and subfolders, and files) and have observed the same result. IT DOES NOT EXCLUDE IT/THEM!
I've tried just the folder, folder and wildcards (*.*), etc., but same result - the calculated backup size clearly includes this folder and it's contents. I know this for a fact since the folder I'm trying to exclude is about 1TB and total disk contents are 1.1TB. All I'm trying to do is create a backup/image of about 100GB (0.1TB) and NOT include the large folder of video files. I've let it rip a couple of times to see if the calculation would correct itself to what I would expect, but it doesn't and the counter says that the backup time is 17 hrs (and increasing).
To that extent, I chose this program based on the reviews but I must say that, in general, it is not a very intuitive program to use and leaves one wondering what exactly it's doing. Another case of SW developers writing both the underlying code and the UI.
Disappointed since I had high hopes for this program.

 

Just tried again with the exclusion setting as posted by one of the mods here.
Attached are some screen shots showing that the exclude feature is not working for me. They show that I added c:\Diskstation\*.* to the excluded list, the calculation size is just over 1TB (see my post above), and then lastly shows a message saying that 0 files were excluded from 'Diskstation'.

 

Works fine for me :

I think people are having trouble understanding this.

Excluding from a sector based backup creates a dummy file.

1. Easiest way is to is to click ADD category , then Browse and select the folder you want excluded.

You don't need to type anything - except a name for the function - I called mine exclude this.



You see it made the image in 5 seconds - obviously, the 10gb was excluded:






In it's Archive view, Paragon shows the Original partition size here as well.



However, the size is in Windows Explorer is 19.9mb.

 

Thanks SIW2.
I think the issue is lower level folders and files. I presume you have one file in the folder that you excluded.?. So in your case, you excluded one folder and the program said that it excluded 1 file. How about if you put a folder under the parent folder and see what it does.?
I have three folders under the parent folder "diskstation" and then many files (and more folders) under those 3 folders as well. I was playing around with this a little and it seems as though I can get the total backup file size down by adding filters for each folder. For instance.... exclude:
c:\Parent\
c:\Parent\child1
c:\Parent\child2
etc.
So like I (and others) said, if you just exclude the parent folder, the chlidren folders and files don't seem to be excluded.

 

I don't think you can exclude sub folders en masse

There are only file masks - not sub folder masks.

Might be a good idea for them to add it , though.

They probabaly didn't intend it to be a vastly complex algorithm , like windows search, with boolean operands and so on.

The purpose of it is simply to excude a few things, e.g. a folder containing pictures you may have already backed up , or a large .iso you recently downloaded.

Keeping vast amounts of different types of data separate is what partitions are for.